He was born in
Inskip, Lancashire. on 28 January 1915. the son of Rev Albert James Long (died 1940), a Baptist minister, and his wife, Isabel Amblet (died 1960). He attended school in
Todmorden. As a schoolboy he was shot in the left foot and relied on a medical boot to walk, walking with a permanent limp. He then studied science at
Manchester University under Professor
William Henry Lang. He then underwent training as a teacher and, initially, took a post at
Lewes in Sussex. In 1945, he began teaching science at
Berwickshire High School in
Duns in the Scottish Borders. In 1962, he was elected a fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were
Charles Waterston,
John Walton,
Alexander Mackie and
Claude Wardlaw. Unusually, he won the society's Makdougall-Brisbane Prize for the period 1958 to 1960, before being made a fellow. In 1966, he was awarded an honorary doctorate (DSc) from his
alma mater and, in 1967, a second honorary doctorate (LLD) from
Glasgow University. In 1966, he left Duns to become deputy curator of the
Hancock Museum in
Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He died at home in
Tweedmouth on 13 March 1999. ==Publications==