Albert Heber Longman (24 June 1880 – 16 February 1954), also often referred to as Heber Longman or Heber Albert Longman, was an Australian newspaper publisher and museum director of British origin.

Early years

Longman was born at

Heytesbury Heytesbury is a village (formerly considered to be a town) and a civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The village lies on the north bank of the Wylye, about southeast of the town of Warminster. The civil parish includes most of the small neigh ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, and educated at Emwell House School at

Warminster Warminster () is an ancient market town with a nearby garrison, and civil parish in south west Wiltshire, England, on the western edge of Salisbury Plain. The parish had a population of about 17,000 in 2011. The 11th-century Minster Church of S ...

. Because of a chest weakness, in 1902 he emigrated to Australia and settled in

Toowoomba Toowoomba ( , nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar') is a city in the Toowoomba Region of the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. It is west of Queensland's capital city Brisbane by road. The urban population of Toowoomba as of the 2021 C ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

. There he, with support from local businesses, established a newspaper first called the ''Rag'', and later the ''Citizen''. In 1904 he married Irene Maud Bayley, who was to be the first woman elected to the

Queensland Parliament The Parliament of Queensland is the legislature of Queensland, Australia. As provided under the Constitution of Queensland, the Parliament consists of the Monarch of Australia and the Legislative Assembly. It has been the only unicameral s ...

. Interested in the natural history of the area, Longman collected botanical specimens and helped establish the local field naturalists club. In 1911 he published a book – ''The Religion of a Naturalist'' – expressing his philosophical position as an

agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient ...

Queensland Museum

In 1911 Longman moved to Brisbane to take up a position as a member of the staff of the

Queensland Museum The Queensland Museum is the state museum of Queensland, dedicated to natural history, cultural heritage, science and human achievement. The museum currently operates from its headquarters and general museum in South Brisbane with specialist mu ...

, rising to become Acting Director in 1917 and Director in 1918. There the main focus of his interests turned from botany to zoology, especially

vertebrate paleontology Vertebrate paleontology is the subfield of paleontology that seeks to discover, through the study of fossilized remains, the behavior, reproduction and appearance of extinct animals with vertebrae or a notochord. It also tries to connect, by us ...

, describing new genera of fish, marine reptiles, dinosaurs and a marsupial. He wished to make the Museum more of an educational institution, rather than a repository of fossils. He acquired for the Museum several dinosaur skeletons, including the Rhoesaurus Brownei. He published approximately 70 papers which appeared in the ''Memoirs of the Queensland Museum''. He also wrote a popular column – ''Nature’s ways'' – in the Brisbane ''Courier-Mail''. He retired from the museum in 1945 and died at his home in Brisbane in 1954. He was survived by his wife Irene Longman.

Honours and awards

* President,

Royal Society of Queensland The Royal Society of Queensland was formed in Queensland, Australia in 1884 from the Queensland Philosophical Society, Queensland's oldest scientific institution, with royal patronage granted in 1885. The aim of the Society is "Progressing scie ...

(1919, 1939) * President,

Queensland Naturalists' Club ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

* Vice-chairman, Great Barrier Reef Committee * Member,

Australian National Research Council The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The academy is modelled after the Royal Soci ...

* Fellow,

Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

* Fellow,

Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) is a long-established anthropological organisation, and Learned Society, with a global membership. Its remit includes all the component fields of anthropology, such as biolo ...

* Corresponding member,

Zoological Society of London The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained the London Zoo, and since 1931 Whipsnade Park. History On 29 ...

* 1946 –

Australian Natural History Medallion The Australian Natural History Medallion is awarded each year by the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria (FNCV) to the person judged to have made the most meritorious contribution to the understanding of Australian Natural History. The idea origina ...

* 1952 –

Mueller Medal The Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS) is an organisation that was founded in 1888 as the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science to promote science. It was modelled on the British As ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Longman, Albert Heber 1880 births 1954 deaths People from Wiltshire English emigrants to Australia People from Brisbane Australian naturalists Australian paleontologists Directors of museums in Australia 20th-century naturalists