Desmond Herbert

Who was Desmond Herbert?

Desmond Andrew Herbert CMG 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 B.Sc. in 1918 and a M.Sc. 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 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.