Thomas Drury Smeaton

Last updated February 28, 2019

Thomas Drury Smeaton (c. 1831 – 18 February 1908) trained in England as an engineer, emigrated to the British colony of South Australia, where he was known as a banker and amateur scientist.

South Australia is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of 983,482 square kilometres (379,725 sq mi), it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, and fifth largest by population. It has a total of 1.7 million people, and its population is the second most highly centralised in Australia, after Western Australia, with more than 77 percent of South Australians living in the capital, Adelaide, or its environs. Other population centres in the state are relatively small; Mount Gambier, the second largest centre, has a population of less than 30,000.

History

Thomas Smeaton was born in London "within sound of Bow Bells", and trained as an engineer. He was sponsored by the South Australian Company to emigrate to South Australia, but finding no opening for an engineer joined the Company's financial institution, the Bank of South Australia as a clerk sometime before 1856, later as the bank's accountant. In 1864 he was appointed manager of the newly formed branch in Robe, where he was an active as President of the Robe Institute, and where his wife, a popular Sunday-school teacher, died in childbirth. He returned to the Adelaide head office as assistant manager, and served as manager on numerous occasions between 1870 and 1884 when he retired to his home "Dalebank" in Blakiston. Around 1904 he moved to Mount Lofty, where he died after some months in poor health.^[1] His wife Selina later lived at Brunswick Road, Dulwich.

The South Australian Company was formed in London on 9 October 1835 by George Fife Angas and other wealthy British merchants to develop a new settlement in South Australia; its purpose was to build a new colony. The South Australian Company ended business in its own right on 17 March 1949 when it was liquidated by Elders Trustee & Executor Company Ltd, which had been managing its Australian affairs since the death of the last Colonial Manager, Arthur Muller in 1936.

The first Bank of South Australia was founded by the South Australian Company in 1837 and became defunct in 1892.

Robe, South Australia Town in South Australia

Robe is a town and fishing port located in the Limestone Coast of South Australia. The town's distinctive combination of historical buildings, ocean, fishing fleets, lakes and dense bush is widely appreciated. Robe lies on the southern shore of Guichen Bay, just off the Princes Highway. At the 2006 census, Robe had a population of 1,246. Robe is the main town in the District Council of Robe local government area. It is in the state electorate of MacKillop and the federal Division of Barker.

Other interests

Smeaton was a well-read man, both of literature and scientific subjects, of which he had a wide knowledge and great enthusiasm. He was in 1853 a founding member of the Adelaide Philosophical Society, and chairman in 1860. Professor Stirling was a firm friend, as was Professor (later Sir) Robert Chapman of Adelaide University.

Sir Robert William ChapmanMIEAust was an Australian mathematician and engineer.

An article by him on rainbows was published in Nature ; he regularly contributed articles to The Register , and he corresponded with many authors of Encyclopædia Britannica articles, offering useful criticism.

Nature is a British multidisciplinary scientific journal, first published on 4 November 1869. It is one of the most recognizable scientific journals in the world, and was ranked the world's most cited scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports and is ascribed an impact factor of 40.137, making it one of the world's top academic journals. It is one of the few remaining academic journals that publishes original research across a wide range of scientific fields.

The Encyclopædia Britannica, formerly published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It was written by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 contributors. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, which spans 32 volumes and 32,640 pages, was the last printed edition.

He was a member of the Adelaide Hospital Board for some years, and was one of the founders and longtime honorary secretary of that hospital's Good Samaritan Fund.

The Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) is Adelaide's largest hospital. The RAH provides tertiary health care services for South Australia and provides secondary care clinical services to residents of Adelaide's city centre and inner suburbs.

Family

He married Mary Ann Green (c. 1828 – 16 December 1865) who died in childbirth at Robe. He married again, in 1871, to Selina (Selena?) Jane Witt ( – 13 May 1920); their children included:

Anatole Smeaton (1859 – 17 July 1940) married Enos Heli Lock ( – 9 July 1921) on 6 December 1888
Stirling Smeaton B.A., A.M.I.C.E. (30 October 1860 – 12 March 1909), one of the first two graduates from University of Adelaide; railway engineer then with the Engineer-in-Chief's department. Noted field naturalist, he never married.^[2]
Edna Smeaton (4 January 1868 – 25 January 1954) married Thomas Luscombe Wright ( – ) on 15 August 1895

Drury Luscombe Wright (c. June 1898 – 11 April 1917) was killed in France during World War I

Fabrian Smeaton (17 June 1869 – 20 June 1906), died at Mount Lofty
Ida Smeaton (18 March 1871 – 1957)
Dr. Bronte Smeaton (6 October 1873 – 1956) married Elizabeth Florence Moule (1873 – 10 October 1900) on 16 June 1900. Elizabeth was a daughter of John Moule MHA. He married again, to Josephine Lucie Cordelia "Jo" Wigley (1877–1961), daughter of Glenelg mayor Henry Rodolph Wigley, on 18 May 1904. They lived at Blakiston, then Mount Barker, later Barton Terrace, North Adelaide. He was medical superintendent of Adelaide Hospital for a few years then had a practice at Mount Barker where he was a prominent citizen and member of Adelaide Hunt Club.^[3]

Dr. (Bronte) Creagh Smeaton (15 November 1905 – 19 March 1950) married Morna Dunn Dobbie (2 November 1904 – ) in 1932. They had two sons and a daughter. He specialized as anaesthetist,^[4] later as radiologist in Adelaide.^[5] Morna was a daughter of Arthur Chapman Dobbie and a teacher of the Margaret Morris method of barefoot dancing.^[6]
Joan Mary Smeaton (18 February 1909 – )
Patricia Constance Smeaton (1913– )
John Anthony Smeaton (1916– )

Raymond Smeaton (19 January 1876 – 27 August 1921) married Gertrude Margaret Jones (1875–) on 26 December 1903; he was manager of the Blyth, then Tumby Bay, Mount Pleasant and Murray Bridge branches of the Bank of Adelaide. Mrs. Smeaton was a prominent socialite.

Margaret Condon "Greta" Smeaton (1908– ) married William Cave Howard (12 May 1905 – ) on 14 January 1933.

Graham Smeaton (21 December 1877 – 26 April 1949) married Helena Winifred "Nell" Maynard ( – ) in 1920. He was manager of C. Wright's estate on the Bay Road.

There is no evidence of his being closely related to the South Australian politician Thomas Hyland Smeaton.

Miss Matilda Witt (c. 1830 – 9 January 1930), Mrs Smeaton's sister, lived with them at "Dalebank", Blakiston, afterwards at Nairne.^[7]

Related Research Articles

Frank Andrew Halleday was an Australian politician. He was a member of the South Australian Legislative Council from 1938 to 1943.

John Dunn Sr. was a flour miller in the early days of the colony of South Australia; a parliamentarian, philanthropist and a prominent citizen of Mount Barker, South Australia.

Henry (Harry) Adams was an Australian politician and trade unionist. He was a United Labor Party member of the South Australian Legislative Council from 1894 to 1902, representing Central District. He also served as president of the United Trades and Labour Council of South Australia and was a long-serving secretary of the Railways Service Association.

Heinrich Albert Alfred von Doussa was an Australian businessman and politician. He was a member of the South Australian Legislative Council from 1901 to 1921, representing Southern District.

William Bowman was a pioneer farmer, grazier, flour miller and merchant on the Finniss River near Middleton, South Australia.

William George James Mills, generally referred to as W. G. Mills, was a sheep breeder and politician in South Australia.

The Courier is a weekly newspaper published in Mount Barker, South Australia. For much of its existence its full title was The Mount Barker Courier and Onkaparinga and Gumeracha Advertiser, later shortened to The Mount Barker Courier.

Charles Morris Russell Dumas, generally referred to as Charles M. R. Dumas, was a South Australian newspaper proprietor and politician. He was the proprietor of The Mount Barker Courier and Onkaparinga and Gumeracha Advertiser for 54 years and served as president of the South Australian Provincial Press Association from 1915 until his death. He was a member of the South Australian House of Assembly from 1898 to 1902, representing the electorate of Mount Barker.

Charles Richard Wilton was a journalist in the State of South Australia, a longtime literary editor of The Advertiser and authored, under the pen name of "Autolycus", a long-running weekly column in The Courier of Mount Barker.

Sir Frederick Lloyd Dumas, generally known as "Lloyd Dumas" or "F. Lloyd Dumas", was a journalist and politically influential newspaperman in Victoria and South Australia.

Frank Clement Staniford was an Australian politician. He represented the South Australian House of Assembly multi-member seat of Murray from 1924 to 1927 and 1930 to 1933 for the Labor Party. He was Chairman of Committees under Lionel Hill in his second term, and was Minister for Education, Minister for Immigration, Minister for Labour and Employment and Minister for Local Government in the short-lived Richards Ministry of 1933, following the 1932 Labor split.

John Moule was a wheat merchant and politician in the colony of South Australia.

William Rodolph Wigley was a lawyer and politician in the British colony of South Australia.

The Wilmington railway line was a railway line on the South Australian Railways network. It opened from Gladstone to Laura on 2 June 1884. It was extended from Laura to Booleroo Centre on 13 April 1910, and to Wilmington on 20 July 1915.

The Australische Zeitung was a weekly German-language newspaper published in Tanunda, South Australia from 1860 until it ceased publication during World War I in 1916 due to anti-German sentiment. The newspaper also existed in a variety of earlier names or merged publications, reflecting the fluid nature of the newspaper industry in Victorian gold rush era colonial South Australia. The long history of German language Australian newspapers reflects the considerable German-speaking population which settled in South Australia in the nineteenth century.

The Corporate Town of Murray Bridge was a local government area in South Australia from 1924 to 1977.

Thomas Good was a merchant of Adelaide, South Australia, a founder of the wholesale drapery business of Good, Toms & Co.

Henry Jackson Moseley was a builder and publican in the very early days of the British colony of South Australia.

Carl Heinrich Conrad Loessel or Lössel, generally known as Carl or Carl Heinrich Loessel, was a German-born Lutheran pastor and schoolteacher in the early days of the British colony of South Australia. He was a founder of the Lutheran Church in Flinders Street, Adelaide, and pastor of the church at Lobethal.

John James Bonnar was a schoolteacher and lawyer in the early days of the colony of South Australia.

References

↑ "The Late Mr. T. D. Smeaton". The Register . Adelaide. 19 February 1908. p. 5. Retrieved 30 November 2015– via National Library of Australia.
↑ "Concerning People". The Register . Adelaide. 13 March 1909. p. 9. Retrieved 30 November 2015– via National Library of Australia.
↑ "Hunt at Mount Barker". The Mount Barker Courier And Onkaparinga And Gumeracha Advertiser . 26, (1340). South Australia. 8 June 1906. p. 2. Retrieved 25 August 2018– via National Library of Australia.
↑ "Medical Science Institute". The Advertiser (Adelaide) . South Australia. 17 February 1938. p. 10. Retrieved 29 August 2018– via National Library of Australia.
↑ "Death Of Dr. B. C. Smeaton". The Advertiser (Adelaide) . 92, (28,532). South Australia. 21 March 1950. p. 3. Retrieved 24 August 2018– via National Library of Australia.
↑ Jack Royans, 'Stewart, Eleanor Charlotte (Nora) (1879–1966)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/stewart-eleanor-charlotte-nora-8662/text15147, published first in hardcopy 1990, accessed online 24 August 2018.
↑ "Obituary". The Mount Barker Courier And Onkaparinga And Gumeracha Advertiser . 49, (2563). South Australia. 17 January 1930. p. 5. Retrieved 25 August 2018– via National Library of Australia.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] "The Late Mr. T. D. Smeaton". The Register . Adelaide. 19 February 1908. p. 5. Retrieved 30 November 2015– via National Library of Australia.

[2] "Concerning People". The Register . Adelaide. 13 March 1909. p. 9. Retrieved 30 November 2015– via National Library of Australia.

[3] "Hunt at Mount Barker". The Mount Barker Courier And Onkaparinga And Gumeracha Advertiser . 26, (1340). South Australia. 8 June 1906. p. 2. Retrieved 25 August 2018– via National Library of Australia.

[4] "Medical Science Institute". The Advertiser (Adelaide) . South Australia. 17 February 1938. p. 10. Retrieved 29 August 2018– via National Library of Australia.

[5] "Death Of Dr. B. C. Smeaton". The Advertiser (Adelaide) . 92, (28,532). South Australia. 21 March 1950. p. 3. Retrieved 24 August 2018– via National Library of Australia.

[6] Jack Royans, 'Stewart, Eleanor Charlotte (Nora) (1879–1966)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/stewart-eleanor-charlotte-nora-8662/text15147, published first in hardcopy 1990, accessed online 24 August 2018.

[7] "Obituary". The Mount Barker Courier And Onkaparinga And Gumeracha Advertiser . 49, (2563). South Australia. 17 January 1930. p. 5. Retrieved 25 August 2018– via National Library of Australia.