Class: cabin
wrote shipboard diary available FRC
PPA Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 10 January 1945, Page 4
EDUCATION PIONEER
LIFE OF THOMAS JOHN THOMPSON SCHOLARSHIP FOR NELSON COLLEGE Linking Nelson College of this and future years with the Nelson School Society of 1842 is the T. J. Thompson Scholarship awarded for the first time at the 1944 prize giving of the Nelson Colleges, the winner being B. H. Young. This scholarship is the result of a bequest of £IOOO made by Mrs Jane Evans O?Dwyer, who died at Blenheim in 1933. Mrs O?Dwyer desired to perpetuate the memory of her father, Thomas John Thompson, who came to Nelson in the ship Lord Auckland in February, 1842, took a hand in the founding of the Nelson School Society, and was the last surviving trustee of that society. Mr Thompson?s sons and grand-child-ren attended Nelson College. His portrait is in the Suter Art Gallery. SURVEYOR?COLONIST Thomas John Thompson was born in 1814?the year before Waterloo. His father, an officer of the Royal Engineers, was then stationed at Gibraltar. As a young man Mr Thompson attended London University. Hp qualified as a surveyor and was for some years engaged in surveying for the ? route of the Great Western Railway from London to Cornwall. Those were eventful days. The years 1839 and 1840 had been notable for the colonising efforts of the New Zealand Company, the founding of Wellington and the official recognition of British rule over New Zealand. Mr Thompson decided to join the colonists going to the settlement of Nelson which the Company planned to found in the South Island. His father?s cousin, William Thompson, M.P., was a director of the Company. Mr Thompson used to recall that he held a candle to light up the public meeting called by Captain Arthur Wakefield to consider starting a school for the children of the Nelson settlers. He was a trustee of the Nelson School Society which provided schools in the settlement from 1842 until education became a responsibility of the Provincial Government. He continued as a trustee until the Society?s property was handed over to become the nucleus and site of the Suter Gallery. He was then the last surviving member of the original trustees. FAMILY OF THIRTEEN Landing in Nelson as a young man of 28 Mr Thompson never left the Province. He settled on a 100-acre property at Richmond which he farmed for 55 years until his death in 1900. He married in 1846 Miss Sarah Hargreaves, who also had been a passenger on the Lord Auckland. They had a family of 13 children, of whom the eldest was the late Mrs O?Dwyer. Two sons, well known to the older generation of Nelson people were the late H. P. Thompson, of Moutere, and the late F. A. Thompson, who was Commissioner of Crown Lands for Nelson from 1912 until his death in 1918. The surviving members of Mr T. J. Thompson?s family are Mrs Laura H. Sheat, of Auckland, and Mr Vernon Thompson, of Kaitaia, North Auckland. Soon after he reached Nelson in 1842, Mr Thompson, in partnership with his fellow-passenger and surveyor, Mr John Wallis Barnicoat, took contracts with the New Zealand Company for the survey of portion jgyjijk Waimea Plain. went boat to Richmond S MM* earrteg their stores and the site of Richmond An. Church, which was the lo- ?* their survey camp. They surveyed Waimea East, the portion of the plain east of the Waimea River. Early in 1843 they voyaged in open boats to the Wairau River mouth and started a further contract,, to survey a block of the Wairau Plain, while other surveyors worked on other portions. When the work of the surveyors was interrupted by Maoris Mr Thompson walked overland to Nelson by way of the Tophouse route to seek instructions. He had almost completed the return walk to the Wairau when he met fugitives from the survey parties bringing news of the so-called ?Wairau massacre.? These men he guided back to Nelson, all suffering privations owing to lack of food. The three trips through the trackless backcountry of Nelson were undertaken in midwinter (May-June 1843). For a period Mr Thompson served on the Nelson Provincial Council, but increasing deafness obliged him to relinquish this public service. 1 However, he continued to practise hi 6 profession as . a surveyor hnd civil engineer until over three-score and I ten years. Many of the roads of what is now 'Waimea County were laid out by him. During the voyage of the Lord Auckland to Nelson Mr Thompson 1 was editor and principal producer of ?The Lord Auckland Journal,? in which the cabin passtengers displayed their literary, enthusiasm. There is apparently no extant copy of this ship?s manuscript newspaper. HOW SCHOLARSHIP ORIGINATED Mr and Mrs Thompson lie buried in the Richmond cemetery. Their middle age was clouded by the extremely tragic circumstance of the death of three small daughters from diphtheria in the space of a few weeks during the early sixties. In those far-off days there was no immunisation of infants against this disease, and Nelson had few medical men. This family misfortune made a profound effect on the mind of Mrs O?Dwyer, who was then about 14 years of age. Deprived of her three little sisters in one fell swoop, she had a tender place in her heart for the sick and the bereaved. This found expression 70 years later when her will was read. She set aside £IOOO to found the Thompson Scholarship in medicine. Mrs O?Dwyer died in 1933, aged 86, but the complete disposal of her estate was deferred pending certain life interests which terminated in 1943. ?Headingley,? the old home of Mr and Mrs Thompson at Richmond, was demolished some years ago. The large plantation of oaks and other trees planted by Mr Thompson 80 years ago continue to flourish on the property in Lower Queen Street.
Thomas John Thompson was in every sense a Nelson pioneer, and one who gave a life of great activity to laying the strong foundations of Nelson Province.
PPA Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXX, Issue 156, 3 July 1896, Page 2
RICHMOND A GOLDEN WEDDING. Two of Nelson's ' earliest settlers Mr and Mrf T. J. Thompson, of, "Heading. Jey," Richmond, celebrated their golden wedding yesterday. .'.The. worthy couple both arrived, in Nelson in the barque "Lord Auckland,", on February :28th, 1842, and wire married on July 2nct, 1842, by the Venerable Archdeacon- Butt, in the church formerly used as the New 'Zealand Company's survey office, erected on the site occupied by the present Cathedral, Mr Thompson in earlier years took part in many public affairs, and. also followed his profession as a surveyor. Mr and Mrs Thompson have reared 13 children! 9 of whom are living. There are 11' grandchildren J The venerable couple in' spite of their.years, enjoy good health, and this numerous messages of congratulation which reached them this week from all parts of the colony testify, bh'the hylj esteem in which they are held by, al}. Thomas John Thompson had person sources.
7 He immigrated to ENG to Nelson, NZ on the Lord Auckland arriving NZ 7/2/1842, on 21 September 1841.
1 He was a Surveyor in 1842.
1