LONGMAN, IRENE MAUD (1877-1964), politician and community worker, was born on 24 April 1877 at Franklin, Tasmania, daughter of Rev. James Molineux Bayley and his wife Mary Alice, née Frencham. Her father, a Congregational minister, had moved to Queensland by 1895, his last parish being Toowoomba. Irene was educated at Sydney Girls' High School and Sydney Church of England Girls' Grammar School, obtained a kindergarten diploma and taught at Normanhurst and at the Sydney and Rockhampton Girls' Grammar schools. On 29 January 1904 at Toowoomba she married Albert Heber Longman; they were to be childless. She helped him to run his Toowoomba newspaper and joined him in zoological research. They moved to Brisbane in 1911 where in 1913-15 she was a supervisor and trainer of students for the recently established Crèche and Kindergarten Association.
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Irene Longman was the first woman to both stand for and be elected to the Queensland Parliament. She was a member of the Country and Progressive National Party for the electorate of Bulimba from 11 May 1929 to 11 June 1932. Longman moved Address-in-Reply to the Governor's Opening of Parliament Speech on 21 August 1929.
Irene Longman was educated at Sydney Girls' High School and Redlands (SCEGS) North Sydney. After obtaining a Kindergarten Teaching Diploma she taught at Normanhurst, Sydney Girls' Grammar School and Rockhampton Girls' Grammar School.
An activist in many women's organisation Longman was President of the National Council of Women of Queensland from 1920 to 1924; Honorary President Queensland Citizenship League; Honorary President Queensland Association for the Welfare of the Mentally Deficient; Vice-President of the Queensland Branch Lyceum Club; Vice-President of the Queensland Womens' Peace Movement and Officer of the Creche and Kindergarten Association.
Also Longman is responsible for the first Queensland women police officer and for changing the meeting place of the Children's Court from its meeting place in the precinct of the Police Court.
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