Desmond Herbert, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetDesmond Herbert
Australian botanist (1898–1976)
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Diamond Creek, Victoria, Australia
About Desmond Herbert
- Desmond Andrew Herbert (17 June 1898 – 8 September 1976) was an Australian botanist. The son of a fruit-grower, Herbert was born in Diamond Creek, Victoria in 1898; was educated at Malvern State School and the Melbourne Church of England Grammar School, then matriculated to the University of Melbourne, from which he obtained a BSc in 1918 and a MSc in 1920. He began his botanic career in 1919 as a botanical assistant in the Explosives Section of Western Australia's Mines Department.
- He was later appointed Economic Botanist and Plant Pathologist for Western Australia, and also lectured part-time in agricultural botany and plant pathology at the University of Western Australia.
- During this time he made a number of collecting expeditions in south-west Western Australia, and published a number of plant taxa, of which Logania tortuosa, Melaleuca coronicarpa, Daviesia uniflora, Xanthorrhoea brevistyla and Xanthorrhoea nana (Dwarf Grasstree) remain current.
- In 1921, he published a book, The Poison Plants of Western Australia. In 1921, Herbert took up a position as Professor of Plant Physiology and Pathology at the University of the Philippines.
- On 11 December 1922 he married his assistant Vera McNeilance Prowse, daughter of John Henry Prowse; they would have two sons and two daughters.
- Herbert returned to Australia in 1924, joining the Botany Department of the University of Queensland.
- Initially his position was that of lecturer, but in 1929 he obtained his D.Sc.
- from the University of Melbourne, and he was awarded an honorary D.Sc.
- by the University of Queensland in 1935.
- In 1946 he was promoted to associate professor; two years later he was appointed acting professor, and shortly afterwards foundation professor of botany.
- He was later made Dean of the Faculty of Science. Herbert was President of the Queensland Naturalists' Club in 1926; of the Royal Society of Queensland in 1928; of the botany section of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science in 1932; of the Horticultural Society of Queensland from 1936 to 1942; of the Orchid Society of Queensland in 1940; and of the Queensland branch of the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science in 1942.
- He lectured on horticulture for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, judged garden competitions, and wrote for the Sunday Mail.
- In 1952 he published a compilation of his Sunday Mail articles entitled Gardening in Warm Climates.
- During World War II he helped select sites for research into chemical warfare, and co-wrote a survival manual for the Royal Australian Air Force entitled Friendly Fruits and Vegetables. Herbert retired in 1965, and a year later was appointed CMG.
- He died in Royal Brisbane Hospital on 8 September 1976, and his body was cremated. One of his sons, John Desmond, was a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland, and a minister in Frank Nicklin's Country Party government.
- A daughter born in 1930, Joan Winifred (Cribb), herself became a botanist of some renown. Eucalyptus herbertiana was named in his honour. Herbert was red-green colour blind.
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