{{Short description|Australian palaeontologist}} {{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}} '''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 in Wiltshire, England, and educated at Emwell House School in Warminster. Because of a chest weakness, in 1902, he emigrated to Australia and settled in Toowoomba, Queensland. There he, with support from local businesses, established a newspaper initially called the ''Rag'', and later the ''Citizen''. In 1904, he married Irene Maud Bayley, who would become the first woman elected to the Queensland Parliament. 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.<ref name=adb>{{cite book |title='Longman, Albert Heber (1880–1954)'. In: Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol.10 |author=Gill JCH |chapter=Longman, Albert Heber (1880–1954) |year=1986 |publisher= National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |location=Canberra |url= https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/longman-albert-heber-7227/text12513}}</ref>
==Queensland Museum== In 1911, Longman moved to Brisbane to take up a position as a member of the staff of the Queensland Museum, 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, 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,<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article217207878|title=Heber Longman dead|date=1954-02-16|work=Brisbane Telegraph (Qld. : 1948 - 1954)|access-date=2017-10-05|pages=3}}</ref> including the ''Rhoetosaurus brownei''.<ref>{{Cite thesis|title=So hard the conquering: the life of Irene Longman|last=Fallon|first=Patricia|year=2003|url=https://www120.secure.griffith.edu.au/rch/file/a974076d-3222-92b2-e5ca-b9a3f5a81507/1/02Whole.pdf|pages=110|access-date=5 October 2017|archive-date=5 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205081916/https://www120.secure.griffith.edu.au/rch/file/a974076d-3222-92b2-e5ca-b9a3f5a81507/1/02Whole.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>
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.<ref name="adb" /> He was survived by his wife, Irene Longman.
==Honours and awards== * President, Royal Society of Queensland (1919, 1939) * President, Queensland Naturalists Club * Vice-chairman, Great Barrier Reef Committee * Member, Australian National Research Council * Fellow, Linnean Society of London * Fellow, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland * Corresponding member, Zoological Society of London * 1946 – Australian Natural History Medallion<ref>[http://www.fncv.org.au/wp-content/uploads/publications/ANHM/ANHM%20recipients.pdf Australian Natural History Medallionists] Field Naturalists Club of Victoria. Retrieved 12 February 2025.</ref> * 1952 – Mueller Medal<ref>[https://archive.today/20090925233041/http://anzaas.org.au/mueller.html ANZAAS > Mueller Medal Recipients (1904-2005)] archive.is Retrieved 12 February 2025.</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Longman, Albert Heber}} Category:1880 births Category:1954 deaths Category:People from Wiltshire Category:English emigrants to Australia Category:People from Brisbane Category:Australian paleontologists Category:Directors of museums in Australia Category:20th-century Australian naturalists