'Samuel Shenton', a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Royal Geographic Society, founded the Flat Earth Society in 1956, after renaming it from the Universal Zetetic Society. He led the Flat Earth Society from its founding in 1956 until his death in 1971, at which time leadership passed to Charles K Johnson. Shenton collected material, gave lectures and generated publicity for the Society so that by his death in 1971 the Society had over 100 members.