James Roy Kinghorn (12 October 1891 – 4 March 1983), generally known as Roy, or J. R. Kinghorn, was an Australian naturalist, a longtime curator at the

Australian Museum The Australian Museum, originally known as the Colonial Museum or Sydney Museum. is a heritage-listed museum at 1 William Street, Sydney, William Street, Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, New South Wales. It is the oldest natural ...

, and a noted lecturer and broadcaster.

Early years

Roy Kinghorn was born in

Richmond, New South Wales Richmond is a historic town in northwest Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. Richmond is in the local government area of the City of Hawkesbury and is part of the Sydney metropolitan area. It is located 19 metres above sea level on the alluvia ...

, the youngest of three children of Rev. James Kinghorn (1861–1912) and his wife (Bertha) Ethel, née Campbell (ca.1866–1942). He was educated at Ellengowan School, Bathurst,

All Saints' College, Bathurst All Saints' College was an Independent school, independent, co-educational Christian college in the Anglican tradition. It was established in 1874, and closed in 2018 to merge with The Scots School, Bathurst, to form Scots All Saints' College, w ...

and the

Sydney Church of England Grammar School The Sydney Church of England Grammar School (commonly known as Shore or Shore School) is an independent Anglican school for boys located on Sydney's Lower North Shore, New South Wales, Australia. The school operates across two campuses, offer ...

.Rose Docker
'Kinghorn, James Roy (1891–1983)'
''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published in hardcopy 2007, accessed online 7 February 2014 In 1907 he was accepted as a cadet at the Australian Museum, Sydney, specialising in

crustaceans Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of Arthropod, arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquat ...

. He attended lectures at

Sydney University The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

and studied part-time at

Sydney Technical College The Sydney Technical College, now part of TAFE NSW, is a technical school established in 1878, that superseded the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts. The college is one of Australia's oldest technical education institutions. History The Sydney M ...

, but after failing an examination at the College, was transferred to a clerical position at the Museum.

Wartime and later career

Kinghorn enlisted with the

AIF AIF, A.I.F., AiF or aif may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Argumenty i Fakty'' (AiF), a Russian newspaper * Australians in Film (AiF), a Los Angeles-based organisation for the promotion of Australian actors and filmmakers * Aspen Ideas ...

in June 1915 and served during World War I in Egypt and

Lemnos Lemnos ( ) or Limnos ( ) is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within the Lemnos (regional unit), Lemnos regional unit, which is part of the North Aegean modern regions of Greece ...

with the Dental Corps and with the Field Artillery Brigade, mostly as a driver, but after receiving a severe knee injury in December 1917 was repatriated to Australia, and was discharged as permanently medically unfit in July 1918. He was to serve as recruiting officer for the

2nd AIF The Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF, or Second AIF) was the volunteer expeditionary force of the Australian Army in the Second World War. It was formed following the declaration of war on Nazi Germany, with an initial strength of one i ...

during the Second World War. He returned to the Australian Museum in 1918 and was appointed zoologist in charge of reptiles and amphibians; three years later birds were added to his portfolio. He was appointed Assistant Director of the Australian Museum around 1951 and retired in 1956.

Lecturer and broadcaster

Kinghorn was a popular and prolific lecturer on zoological subjects, beginning around 1924. His interest in broadcasting began around the same time, with talks and stories on the Children's Hour on Farmer's Radio Service (later 2FC). Among his last media appearances was (as "Linnaeus" the naturalist) in a weekly spot during the last decade of ABC radio's

Argonauts' Club ''The Argonauts Club'' was an Australian children's radio program, first broadcast in 1933 on ABC Radio Melbourne. Its format was devised by Nina Murdoch who had run the station's Children's Hour as "Pat". The show was discontinued in 1934 when N ...

. He was a regular on Captain Fortune Show, a pioneering TV series of the 1950s and the "Spying on Nature" segment of "Wednesday Wonderbox" children's show on ABC-TV (which also featured

Mr. Squiggle ''Mr. Squiggle'' (originally also known as ''Mr. Squiggle and Friends'') is an Australian children's television series, and the name of the title character from that ABC show. The show was presented on television in many formats, between its inc ...

) in the 1960s.

Family life

Kinghorn married Winifred Mance (died 1977) on 12 November 1921. They had no children.

Publications

*''Large Non-venomous Snakes of Australia'' Australian Museum Magazine vol.1 issue 2 September 1921. *Kinghorn, J.R. 1923. A New Genus of Elapine Snake from Northern Australia. Records of the Australian Museum 14 (1): 42–45 + Plate VII.
(''"Oxyuranus, gen. nov."'', p. 42.) *''Snakes of Australia'', illustrated by Ethel A. King, 1929, New, large format, edition ed.

Harold Cogger Harold George "Hal" Cogger (born 4 May 1935) is an Australian herpetologist. He was curator of reptiles and amphibians at the Australian Museum from 1960 to 1975, and Deputy Director of the museum from 1976 to 1995. He has written extensively on A ...

(1935– ) 1964 *''Dangerous Snakes of the South-West Pacific Area'' with

Charles Kellaway Charles Halliley Kellaway, (16 January 1889 – 13 December 1952) was an Australian medical researcher and science administrator. Biography Early years and education Charles Kellaway was born at the parsonage attached to St James's Old Cathe ...

(1943). This pocket guide was published for American troops serving in the region. * Kinghorn, J. Roy 1929 Herpetological notes No. I Records of the Australian Museum 17 (2): 76–84 * Kinghorn, JR 1929 Rec. Austral. Mus., Sydney, 17: 77 * Kinghorn, J. Reptiles and Roy 1924 batrachian from south and south-west Australia. Records of the Australian Museum 14 (3): 163–183

Societies

Zoological Society of London The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity and organization devoted to the worldwide animal conservation, conservation of animals and their habitat conservation, habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained London Zo ...

(Corresponding Member) *Wildlife Preservation Society of Australia *

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, that is among the largest List of natural history museums, museums of natural history in the world, housing over ...

(Fellow) *

Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales The Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales (RZSNSW) was formed in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia in 1879 as the New South Wales Zoological Society. A Royal Charter was granted in September, 1908, leading to a change to the current name ...

(and its President 1927–1928, 1950–1956) * Royal Australian Ornithologists' Union (council member)

Recognition

*Diploma of the British

Museums Association The Museums Association (MA) is a professional membership organisation based in London for museum, gallery and heritage professionals and organisations of the United Kingdom. It also offers international membership. History The association w ...

, 1935 A

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of snake, ''

Simalia kinghorni The Australian scrub python (''Simalia kinghorni)'', also known Common name, commonly as Kinghorn's python and simply as the scrub python is a species of snake in the Family (biology), family Pythonidae. The species is indigenous to forests of n ...

'', was named for him, as well as a species of lizard, '' Proablepharus kinghorni''.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Kinghorn", p. 141).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kinghorn, James Roy 1891 births 1983 deaths Australian radio personalities Australian herpetologists Australian ornithologists Australian conservationists People educated at Sydney Church of England Grammar School 20th-century Australian zoologists