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John Vaughan Thompson
Family Name:	Thompson	Variant Spellings:
Given Names:	John Vaughan
DOB	19 November 1779	DOD	21 January 1847
Place of Birth:	Brooklyn, New York, America	Place of Death:	Sydney, NSW
Age at Death:	67
School:		University:
Qualifications:		Speciality:	Military surgeon
Other Occupations:	Zoologist Botanist
Spouse:	Martha Solomon m.1817 Cork, Ireland
Children:	Two girls and two boys emigrated 1836
Voyages:	"North Briton" from Leith via Hobart Town arr. Sydney 18 March 1836
Came out as:	Passenger
Date Settled Aus:	1836	Date of Departure:
First Registered:	1838 NSW	Off Register:
Addresses:	Madagascar and Mauritius 1812-1816 (DNB) Cork, Ireland 1816-1835 (Hoare) Chatham Depot, England (Sydney Gazette 1836) Sydney, NSW 1836-1844 Port Macquarie, NSW late 1840s (Rogers)
Positions Held:	Assistant Surgeon, Army 1799 (Johnston) Surgeon 37th Regiment 1800, Staff 1812 (Johnston) Deputy Inspector General 1830 (Johnston) President of First Medical Board of NSW 1838 Deputy Inspector General of Hospitals, NSW 1836-1843
Publications:	Catalogue of plants growing in Berwick-upon-Tweed. London, 1807 Memoir of Pentacrinus Europaeus. Cork, 1827 Zoological researches. Cork, 1828 Original correspondence. Colonist (Sydney) 5 October 1837 [refuting complaints against him by Colonial Surgeon Mitchell]
Notes:	Retired, half pay 11 February 1844 (Johnston) Dismissed from his appointment in NSW April 1843 He was "estimable in every relative duty of life, deeply lamented by his afflicted family, to whom his loss is irreparable" (SMH obituary) Highly regarded in Europe for his research on marine invertebrates, conducted on postings in the tropics and while stationed at Cork, but did no science in Australia (Hoare) A full account of his research at Cork is given by Damkaer (see references)
Acknowledgments:
References:	New South Wales Medical Board. Minutes 31 December 1838 [Deputy Inspector of Hospitals, President] Johnston W. Roll of commissioned officers in the Medical Service of the British army. Aberdeen, 1917 [born 19 November 1779 died Sydney 21 January 1847] Concise dictionary of national biography to 1930. Oxford, London 1939 [zoologist, at taking of Demerara 1803 as Assistant Surgeon, FLS 1810, at Madagascar and Mauritius 1812-1816, then Cork etc] Wheeler A. Thompson : marine biologist. British Medical Journal 30 August 1975 [raised Berwick-on-Tweed, medicine at Edinburgh 1797-1798, military surgeon, discovered metamorphosis in crustacea] Damkaer M. Copepodologist's cabinet. Philadelphia, 2002 Wilson-McIvor genealogy website accessed January 2018 [born Brooklyn, New York, 19 November 1779; studied Edinburgh, Scotland; married Martha Solomon at Cork, Ireland 1 May 1817] Hoare ME. Science and scientific associations in Eastern Australia 1820-1890. PhD Thesis, ANU 1994 [highly regarded for his research on marine invertebrates while District (sic) Med Insp at Cork 1816-1835] Cummins CJ. Colonial medical service. Parts I and II. Modern Medicine of Australia. 1974;17(1,2):11-24, 11-25 [Thompson impervious to criticism, dismissed 1844] Cummins CJ. History of medical administration in NSW 1788-1973. 2nd ed. North Sydney : NSW Department of Health, 2003 Gordon D. Waiting years 1842 to 1859. Medical Journal of Australia 1966; i: 288-90 [Thompson DIG Hospitals from 1836 dismissed 1843] McIntosh AM. Case of Dr. James Mitchell. Medical Journal of Australia 1956;ii:161-8 [assumed office of DIG NSW 1 April 1836, unbending, dismissed April 1843] Rogers F. Port Macquarie : a history to 1850. Hornsby, NSW 1982 [Thompson formerly DIG Hospitals at Port Macquarie late 1840s] Historical Records of Australia. 1: XVIII: 442, 621 [Thompson arrives as DIG Hospitals 1836, requests changes, complains of drunkenness among doctors] Historical Records of Australia. 1: XVIII: 715 [removed from office 1843, slow to prepare returns for the Army Medical Board] Historical Records of Australia.1: XXII 127-8 [complaining that he is slow to respond to requests for information 1842] News. Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser 12 January 1836 [Dr. Thompson late of Chatham Depot appointed DIH Sydney] Shipping intelligence. Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser 19 March 1836 [Dr. Thompson, Mrs Thompson, Miss Ellen and Martha, Masters John and Joseph on "North Briton" from Leith via Hobart Town] Hospital [editorial]. Colonist (Sydney) 28 September 1837 [alleging Thompson exhibits "the insolence of office" in his dispute with Colonial surgeon Mitchell] Died. Australian Medical Journal February 1847 [died 21 January, for many years DIG Hospitals] Died. Sydney Morning Herald 26 January 1847 [at Sydney on the 21st John Vaughan Thompson for several years DIG Hospitals botanist zoologist etc]
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	last updated 08-01-2018