Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria
Australian National Herbarium
Biographical Notes
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Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria |
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Laird, Norman Ramsay (1915 - 1978)He was born to Thomas and Elizabeth Laird on 7 June 1915 in Mosman, NSW; died 23 June 1978 at Hobart.
He completed his secondary
schooling nearby at Naremburn Technical College.
He
became fascinated with cameras from a young age. His
first job was as a student-artist at Canberras Institute of
Anatomy around the mid-1930s working under the auspices
of esteemed anatomist Colin Mackenzie and photographer
Harry Burrell.
By the late 1930s Laird had left Australia for a sojourn in
New Zealand, where he married Alison Duff in Auckland
and studied for a Bachelor of Science at the then Victoria
College.
They moved to Tasmania in about carly 1941,
where he gained work as a clerk for the Hydro Electric Commission. They
divorced in 1947.
In April 1942 he enlisted
in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), and for much of
the remainder of WW2 he served in the Photographic
Reconnaissance Unit, at Coomalie Creek in the Northern
Teritory.
Following the war, with his skills enriched. Laird obtained
a job in Hobart as the Photographer-in-Charge at Tasnmanias
Department of Lands and Surveys.
His responsibilities extended
to filmmaking in the department's film unit that he helped
establish, where he became a leading producer of numerous
documentary films commissioned by government bodies
for agriculture, tourism, forestry and other porfolios.
On an assignment in 1949 on nursing careers, he met his
future sccond wife Hazel Newman who was then working
at the Royal Hobart Hospital. They married in June 1950.
Laird worked for the remainder of his career as a
government filmmaker except for 13 months in 1948-1949
when he joined an Australian research expedition to
Macquarie Island, an adventure that fuelled his passion
for nature and enriched his growing fame.
His still photos were often used in magazines like Wild Life.
Source: Extracted from:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/212971360/norman-ramsay-laird
Richardson, B.J. (2023) Norman Laird (1915-1978): Pioneering Tasmanian Filmmaker, Writer and Naturalist,
Proc. Roy. Soc. Tas. Vol.157, p.27-35.
Portrait Photo: 1942, enlistment photo in the RAAF, service number 31686.
Data from 578 specimens
