Hardwood: Timber Merchants

Timber Merchants

Albert Edward Heath (1887-1955), timber merchant, was born on 9 November 1887 at Maryborough, Queensland, eldest child of Queensland-born parents Henry Arthur Heath, grocer, and his wife Emily Evelyn, née Lockyer. He went to the Albert State School, but his education was interrupted when he was bitten by a snake, which affected his heart. He started work in a furniture factory at 5s. a week, but in 1905 went to Tasmania where he qualified as a chartered accountant. Moving to Sydney in 1909, Heath worked for two firms of accountants and in 1912 set up on his own. At Hurstville he married Minnie Eastmure Swanton on 17 June 1911. In World War I he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force, was commissioned in the 18th Battalion but, contracting enteric fever, was invalided out. In 1916 he became secretary of A. C. Saxon & Sons, timber merchants, a director in 1920 and, on the death of Saxon in 1926, general manager.