(William) Launcelot Scott Fleming was born on 7 August 1906 at Edinburgh. He was educated at Rugby School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, graduating with a degree in natural sciences before completing a master's degree in geology at Yale University. On his return to Britain, he entered Westcott House, a Cambridge theological college. In 1932 he participated in the Cambridge University expedition to Vatnajokull in Iceland (leader Brian Birley Roberts) and the following year served as chief scientist with the Oxford University expedition to West Spitsbergen (leader Alexander Richard Glen).
In 1933, Fleming was appointed to a chaplaincy and fellowship at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and the following year joined the British Graham Land Expedition, 1934-1937 (leader John Riddoch Rymill), as chaplain and geologist, also serving as photographer. Fleming was a member of a three-man sledging party that proceeded southwards along the newly discovered King George VI Sound, reaching 72L South in October 1936.
Fleming returned to Trinity Hall, advancing to the post of dean in 1937, and serving as examining chaplain to the bishops of Southwark, St. Albans and Hereford. During the Second World War, he served as chaplain in the Royal Navy and saw action in the North Atlantic aboard the battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth . Returning to Cambridge after the war, he resumed his fellowship, and between 1946 and 1949 served as part-time director of the Scott Polar Research Institute. In 1949, he was appointed bishop of Portsmouth, later serving as bishop of Norwich from 1959 until 1971 when he was appointed dean of Windsor and domestic chaplain to the Queen. Fleming was knighted in 1976, the year of his retirement, and he died on 30 July 1990.
From the guide to the William Launcelot Scott Fleming collection, 1944-1955, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
