Sir Lewis Leigh Fermor OBE FRS (London, England, 18 September 1880 - Horsell, Woking, Surrey, England, 26 May 1954) was an English geologist and the first president of the Indian National Science Academy. His son was the writer and traveller, Patrick Leigh Fermor.[1][2]
He was educated at Wilson's Grammar School in Camberwell and studied metallurgy at the Royal School of Mines.
His first wife, Muriel Eileen (or Aeyleen) (26 April 1890 - 22 October 1977, Brighton), was the daughter of Charles Taafe Ambler (1840-1925) whose father was Warrant Officer (William) James Ambler on HMS Bellerophon when Napoleon surrendered to it.[3]
Lewis Leigh Fermor was one of the founders of geology in India. His major interest was in Archaean geology, and in igneous and metamorphic rocks.
In 1921 he was awarded the Bigsby Medal of the Geological Society of London. He was president of the 20th session of the Indian Science Congress in 1933. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1934, and he was knighted by the Government of India in 1935.
He first described the mineral Hollandite (1906)[4] and the mineral Fermorite, discovered in 1910, is named after him.[5]