John Deas Thomson

Sir John Deas Thomson, KCH, FRS, FLS (c.1763 – 21 February 1838) was a British Navy administrator.

He was born in Edinburgh, the son of John Thomson, also a naval administrator. In 1801 he was described as a 'Naval Officer and store-keeper', based in Leith, Scotland. From 1805 to 1829 he was a Navy Commissioner with no special functions in the Navy Office. From May 1805 to May 1806 he was Private Secretary to Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham, the First Lord of the Admiralty.

In 1820 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society. [1] He was also elected a fellow of the Linnean Society.

From 1829 to 1832 he was appointed Accountant-General of the Navy, [2] notably introducing the concept of double-entry bookkeeping to the department. [3] In the latter year he was made a KCH and knighted by the King. [4]

He then served for several years as the naval storekeeper and agent at the Cape of Good Hope dockyard. [5]

He died at Farleigh Priory, Maidstone, Kent in 1838. [6] He had married Rebecca, the daughter of John Freer in South Carolina. They had 4 sons and a daughter. His son Edward Deas Thomson became an administrator and politician in Australia. [7]

Legacy

Cape Thompson, a headland on the Chukchi Sea coast of Alaska, was named after him by Captain Frederick William Beechey of the Royal Navy in 1826.

References
  1. "Fellow Details". Royal Society. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  2. Collinge, J. M. "Principal officers and commissioners, Navy Board, British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. University of London, 1978. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  3. "An Italian in the royal navy: the recruitment of double entry bookkeeping". University of Wollongong. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  4. The New Monthly Magazine. 1 October 1832. p. 466.
  5. The Navy List. p. 144.
  6. The United Service Magazine. p. 432.
  7. "John Deas Thomson". Retrieved 9 January 2019.
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