The Well-Pedigreed Thompsons

R. M. Thompson arrived from Balmain in December 1902 to become the first manager of a new Branch of the Bank of NSW just opened in thriving Mullumbimby, pipping the unconnected R. W. Thompson who resigned from the Maclean Branch of the Australian Joint Stock Exchange Bank to open an auctioneer and real estate business in the Court House Hotel building in February 1903. (R.W. had rejected a promotion and transfer to Grafton, presumably because the booming real estate business on the Brunswick offered greater renumeration. R.M.’s elder brother, Albert Thompson (1852 Camden – 1940 Brisbane), was manager of the Grafton branch of the Bank of NSW.)

Ralph Mate Thompson (1870 Camden – 1935 Tumut) was the youngest child of Henry Thompson (1820 Coventry, England – 1871 Camden) and Anne Bardwell (1825 Essex, England – 1912 Burwood). Henry landed with his parents and siblings in 1834 and settled at Camden, playing a large part in its history, the Town and Country Journal of 22 August 1871 saying he was one of the most enterprising gentlemen in the colony… and owner of two flour mills, one of which is said to be the most complete structure in New South Wales out of Sydney… And, perhaps, the most extensive in the colony… amplified the Journal of 12 March 1881. His impressive residence “Macaria” is now one of Camden’s major heritage-listed buildings.

Henry and Anne were married in the Congregational Church, Sydney, in 1845 and set out for Camden almost immediately. She had landed with her family in 1833, the same ship also carrying the Mate family, one of whom, Thomas Hodges Mate (1810 Kent, England – 1894 Manly), MLA for Hume 1861-69, married her sister Maria Bardwell (1816 Essex – 1878 Wagga), 1836 Sydney. At Wagga in 1889 their daughter Ann (1842 Wagga – 1941 Woollahra) married Henry’s brother, John Thompson (1818 England – 1889 Parramatta). And in 1880 Sydney their daughter Sophia Victoria Mate (1857 Wagga – 1909 Albury) married George Arthur Thompson (1854 Sydney – 1925 Albury), the son of Henry’s brother Thomas James Thompson (1830 London – 1917 Burwood).

Businessman Thomas James Thompson, father of the Sydney Stock Exchange…, was associated with the firm of David Jones and Co. … and married the founder’s daughter, Jane Jones (1833 Sydney - 1911 Burwood), at the Pitt Street Congregational Church in 1853. His nephew, our Ralph Mate Thompson, travelled from Mullum to marry Maud Unwin Sydney-Jones (1868 Sydney - 1927 Tumut), daughter of celebrated physician and surgeon Dr Sir Phillip Sydney-Jones, the 5th child of retailer David Jones, in the Trinity Congregational Church, Strathfield, 28 October 1908. (Maud was buried in the Sydney-Jones family vault in Sydney.)

(By-the-bye, the remains of the Thompson patriarch, Joseph Thompson (1779 Daventry, Northamptonshire – 1858 Sydney), were recently unearthed by archaeologists on the Sydney Metro site at Central Station, confirmed by his great, great, great granddaughter, Penny Russell, Professor of History at Sydney University. Joseph migrated aged 55 with wife Mary, nee Brown, and 5 children. By 1839 he was a draper operating in Pitt Street where son T. J. Thompson above did his apprenticeship. See SMH of 29 June 2019).

Richard Windeyer Thompson jnr (1872 Maitland – 1947 Brunswick Heads) was the son of Richard Windeyer Thompson snr (1832 Sydney – 1906 Sydney) and Sarah Alice Bedwell (1844 Paterson – 1915 Sydney), married 1864 Paterson. Richard Snr was the son of John Thompson (1799 England – 1861 Woolloomooloo), who landed in 1827 and occupied successively the offices of Deputy Survey-General, Acting-Surveyor General and Surveyor-General for the colony of NSW. His mother (Anne Mary Windeyer, 1809 London - 1893 Woollahra) was the oldest daughter of Mr Charles Windeyer (1780 Staffordshire, England – 1855 Newtown, NSW) and Ann Mary Rudd (1784 England – 1865 Woolloomooloo).

Richard snr graduated as a solicitor and in 1859 settled in Maitland, which he represented as an MLA 1885-1891. His brother John Malbon Thompson (1830 Sydney – 1908 Sydney), was a classmate and in 1857 chose to set up a solicitor’s practice in Ipswich, which electorate he represented in the Queensland parliament 1868-1881. He married Clara Georgina Bedwell 1863 Paterson.

Charles Windeyer, who migrated 1828 with most of his family, was appointed as the first mayor of Sydney and was the first Police Magistrate in Sydney… His barrister son Richard Windeyer (1806 London – 1847 Launceston), who landed 1835, owned 30,000 acres in the Hunter Valley by 1842 and in 1843 was elected as the MLC for Durham. And Richard’s son, Sir William Charles Windeyer (1834 London – 1897 Italy), was also a politician, serving as solicitor-general 1870-72 and attorney-general 1877-79. He was also a classmate of R. M. Thompson Snr, a judge and chancellor of the University of Sydney.

By the turn of the century Mullumbimby was booming thanks to the rapidly multiplying cows attracting speculators and developers. The building recently erected by Arthur Belson in Stuart Street was snapped up by the Bank of NSW in November 1902 to become Mullum’s first bank and R.M. Thompson became its first resident banker a couple of weeks later. He hit the ground running and within the month was serving on the committee of the School of Arts (which transferred its account to his bank) and started off his personal property portfolio with the acquisition of 5 lots adjacent to the bank for £15/lot. And a couple of weeks later, Through the instrumentality of Mr Thompson, of the local Bank of NSW, there are now daily exchange mails between Mullumbimby and Billinudgel…, at which time A new firm of auctioneers, Messrs R. W. Thompson junr., & Co., have started business in Mullumbimby… and within a short while was making a motza with almost daily real estate sales.

In May 1903 R. M. Thompson was on the committee arranging the visit of Governor Rawson and appointed as one of draftees of the address, which begged to assure you of our unabated loyalty to our Sovereign Lord the King… said the 13 self-appointed ‘leading citizens’… H. French, J. Moorhead, J. M’Gregor, C.E. Simpson, W.J. Reilly, S. Woodrow, R. M. Thompson, J. C. Morrison, P. Nelson, JsP.; W. R. Baker, R. J. Sharpe, H. R. Anstey, W. W. Jauncey…

In July 1903 the Tweed Herald and Brunswick Chronicle and Tweed Times and Brunswick Advocate started confusing the two Thompsons, although at the AGM of the School of Arts it looks like R. W. Thompson was elected auditor and probably R. M. Thompson elected to the building committee, while at a separate public meeting the latter was the likely agitator for an extra policeman for the Mullum Patrol District. But it remained a guessing game, and the presence of another R. M. Thompson, the vet of Bangalow, didn’t help.

In January 1904 Real Estate Agent Thompson became the Mullumbimby agent, and possible Correspondent, for the Tweed Herald and Brunswick Chronicle. If Correspondent, then he was a touch satirical in reporting the goings on at the moribund Progress Association, which eventually came good with R. W. as its auditor and active member by January 1906. In the meantime he’d moved into the ex-ES&A Bank building in Burringbar Street, next door to which was the office of auctioneer W. R. Baker, ex-owner and editor of the Tweed Times and Brunswick Advocate. Around December 1903 he formed a partnership with Baker, but in April 1904 landlord Charles Armbruster proceeded to knock down the building and its neighbour to provide Mullum with yet another store, the probable catalyst for the two real estate moguls to go their separate ways, R. W. to operate from an office opposite the Bank of NSW in Stuart Street by at least early 1905, and W. R. into auctioneer Ferguson’s old office near the railway gates.

In July 1904 W. R. Baker became president of the School of Arts with R. M. Thompson as vice-president. And in March 1905 both Thompsons became foundation members of the Agricultural Society.

Mullum was still evolving into a flourishing commercial centre in Nov1905 when the Bank of NSW bought the prominent site on the corner of Burringbar and Stuart from J. E. Glasgow of Byron Bay, the deal done by the General Manager of the Bank during his tour of Northern NSW branches. The Akarana Boarding House occupying the site was shifted to the lot next to Dentist Poolman near the Presbyterian Church. Bachelor R. M. Thompson moved into Mullum’s most iconic building in January 1907.

In January 1906 another prominent corner site at the intersection of Burringbar and Dalley was sold by R .M. Thompson to Charlie Simpson for the erection of yet another store. By this time Banker Thompson, an astute real estate investor with easy access to loans, was one of the largest landowners in Mullum and Brunswick Heads, his judgement vindicated in August 1906 when an SMH journalist described Mullum as a seething cauldron of excitement, and its fame may be very fairly gauged by the ease with which its polysyllable name passes from mouth to mouth from the Clarence to the Tweed. It has outgrown its services most alarmingly, and the sooner it becomes incorporated as a municipality, the better it will be for the health and comfort of its people…

In August 1906 R. W. Thompson was appointed Shire Clerk to the Provisional Byron Shire Council at £2/week and Chief Returning Officer for the Shire Election in November 1906. He held the Shire Clerk job through to February 1907 when the pukka council appointee, J. J. Sheedy, turned up. He was then offered the job of Shire Valuer at £85/yr, but seems to have turned it down (or only held the job for a short while - ultimately 3 valuers were appointed at a combined cost of £130). In October 1907 he was one of the spokesmen (along with Kesteven, Reilly, Morrison and Nelson) who convinced the Local Government Engineer to recommend that Mullum should become a municipality. And in November 1907 he was the commission agent that made the wife of Shire President Jarman £530 richer upon selling “Jarman’s Hall” to the shire council as its permanent home.

Auctioneer Thompson had moved from Stuart to Dalley in January 1907 and by mid-year was advertising R. W. Thompson, Jr, & Co. The Leading Firm of Auctioneers, Land and Stock Agents, Seed merchants and Valuators… Yates reliable Farm Seeds at catalogue prices (with freight added). Loans negotiated. Agent for Standard Fire and Marine Insurance Co, Acetylene Gas Plants, Blake’s Hydraulic Rams, Martin’s reliable Farm Implements, Life Insurance and Melotte Separators… and running an Employment Agency, as well as offering his services as a Tax Agent. In mid-1909 he relocated next to Richards’ Star Store in Burringbar Street, about where his earlier office stood before being knocked down by Armbruster.

On 20 November 1909 Governor Chelmsford arrived to open the new bridge over Mullumbimby Creek and was greeted by 1000 cheering monarchists at the station where Mr R. M. Thompson read the address of welcome… which he had written himself, begging to assure you of our unabated loyalty to our Sovereign Lord the King, of whom you are so worthy a representative…. Banker Thompson, Vice-president of the school of Arts, was on the committee formed to organise the event and helped source the flags which made a fine display, the arches at the Railway Station, and, the Stuart, Dalley and Chincogan St intersections being gaily decorated…

In March 1910 R. W. Thompson became a foundation director of the Mullumbimby Co-operative Butchering Co., and in October 1910 an active member of the Mullumbimby branch of the Liberal and Reform League. And was probably on the guest list for the farewell function to R. M. Thompson 12 months later.

The banquet at the School of Arts on 6 October 1911 was given a full page spread in the Mullumbimby Star. It attracted 200 people, embracing representative men from all parts of the district and from the Clarence (including brother Albert) and the Tweed… and was characterised by some of the speakers as being one of the most important of its kind yet held on the Northern Rivers, Sir Thomas Ewing doing the testimonial honours and W.R. Baker saying since Mr Thompson’s advent to Mullumbimby…much of the progress made was due to that gentleman's undying energy… Mrs Thompson, who had won golden opinions from everyone in Mullumbimby, was the only woman present. R. M. was welcomed at Tumut as the nephew (first cousin?) of Mr Alf Mate, the squire of Tarcutta. He died at Tumut in 1935, aged 65, and was cremated in Sydney after a service at the Trinity Congregational Church, Strathfield.

At the 30th anniversary of the Agricultural Society in November 1936 it was mentioned that Mr R. M. Thompson was a moving spirit in everything launched for the progress of the town and district…, and such was his zeal to see Mullumbimby progress that he organised working bees to clear the town streets of logs and stumps and to fill bog holes…

In October 1912 R. W. Thompson became Treasurer of the reformed Mullum branch of the Liberal Association, so as to be ready to combat the socialistic influences of to-day when the right time comes… In February 1913 he became the President of the Progress Association and in June 1915 became a foundation member of the Mullum branch of the Separation Movement, wishing to wave goodbye to NSW. In 1916-17 he was Secretary of the Mullumbimby branch of the National Referendum Committee, presumably in favour of Conscription. In November 1917 he became secretary of the School of Arts during a period of turbulence. And in May 1919 was a foundation member of the Mullum branch of Dr Earle Page’s North Coast Development League.

Mullum’s good times came to an abrupt end in 1921 with the double whammy of a sudden collapse of the banana industry and a crash in the returns from the cow. And with poor timing R. W. Thompson decided to subdivide his Upper Main Arm property/ies, placing 15 uncleared blocks ranging from 10 to 26 acres on the market in November 1921, at which time there were 2000 cases of bananas per week more than the requirements of the trade reaching the Sydney markets, while there were 100’s of cases of rotting bananas left sitting on railway platforms. It looks like his subdivision was a fizzer and the property was possibly in the hands of the banks in 1923 when it was absorbed by Maroomba Plantations Ltd. (R. W. and his solicitor brother, Walter Valentine Windeyer Thompson (1873 Maitland – 1950 Paddington), had selected 150 acres in the Parish of Toolond in 1907 – see The Gaggin Legacy in Newsletter 79 of November 2018).

Thereafter life was a struggle for the nine competing auctioneer and real estate agents operating in the Mullum market, now flooded with many dairy and banana farms going cheaply. R. W. Thompson moved his office to Dalley Street in October 1924, at which time he became outspoken at Chamber of Commerce meetings, often held in Mrs Whittall’s Tea Rooms next door. At a meeting in February 1927 he took up the cudgels against the Council… and cited as an instance the tyrannical attitude they had adopted towards him… And at a public meeting in January 1928, headlined RATEPAYERS INDIGNANT; FED UP WITH COUNCIL; Want to revert to Byron Shire or Form County Council…, he contended that the Council had been wasting money ever since it had been formed… and the duplication of the same services offered by the Shire Council was crazy.

His liver had been playing up since May 1926 when he was outspoken at the School of Arts, contending that the present parlous condition of the Institution was the result of bad administration by past committees… And in Apr1931 was still inflamed at the Public meeting called by the Mayor in the School of Arts on Tuesday night for the purpose of petitioning the Governor General and the State Governor to exercise their prerogatives and abolish their respective Parliaments…

Things must have been bad by Aug1931 when the forgiving Council gave him the job of Pound Keeper and in Jan1932 rejected his request for a wage of 10/- a week. In Mar1934 it seems he was a general Council employee when Council agreed to pay him 2/6d per head as a secondary duty to impound recalcitrant cows. But then in May1934 he again hung his Commission Agent shingle over an office in the Nelson Chambers in Burringbar Street.

In April 1935 Edward Vincent Nelson got a court order to kick him out, presumably because of rent arrears. Then in June 1935 the Star announced that R. W. Thompson… has removed his Land and Commission Agency and Accountancy Business to offices in the Court House Hotel premises, Dalley Street, Mullumbimby. In February 1937 Mrs Cynthia Pearce, licensee of the Court House, won a court order to kick him out, again presumably for rent arrears. He then went to live in a tent on a reserve at Brunswick Heads, where, in November 1938, Richard Windeyer Thompson, a pensioner, was fined 10s with 8s court costs, or, in default two days’ imprisonment, in the Byron Bay police court yesterday for having camped on a public reserve at Brunswick Heads without permission. Three months were allowed in which to pay the fine…
Thompson, who conducted his own case, asked did a person have to come to the council to obtain permission. Mr. Brownell (Shire Clerk): You have been refused permission and have been previously convicted for camping on the reserve.
Asked the reason for having been refused permission to camp on the reserve, Mr. Brownell said that Thompson had been a nuisance to the council. He was the owner of a horse which had strayed on to other camps, and a savage dog, which, it was alleged, had bitten two persons…

But they couldn’t shift him and on 22 February 1947 the Mullum Star reported that Richard Windeyer Thompson, aged 76, was found dead in his tent at Brunswick Heads this morning….

Peter Tsicalas

Source: Brunswick Valley Historical Society Inc. Newsletter, December 2019 - January 2020, pp 2-7.

---

Obituary

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald Thursday, 11 April 1935,

MR. R. M. THOMPSON.

Following a service at the Trinity Congregational Church, Strathfield, the remains of Mr. Ralph Mate Thompson, who for 23 years was manager of the Tumut branch of the Bank of New South Wales, were cremated at Rookwood Crematorium on Tuesday.

Amongst those present were Misses E. and C. Thompson, Mesdames Lidwell, Mitchell, C. S. Browne, Russell Crane, V. M. Wood, Miss Peggy Browne, Messrs. A. Thompson (brother), H. C. Thompson, and Henry and David Thompson.

The Bank of New South Wales officers and ex-officers present were: Messrs. H. Somerset (representing Mr. A. C. Davidson (general manager), I. F. Nicholas (staff inspector), O. A. Fisher (western inspector), W. E. Southerden, J. Arnold (Randwick), H. E. Moxham (Pitt-street), S. A. Thorn (Burwood), I, D. Murray and L. Jagoe (late audit staff), and S. H. Massey.

Others present were Messrs. P. C. Marsh, A. W. Davis, J. H. Prowse, Neil Browne, John Waugh, P. W. Smart, and H. M. Potts.

The Rev. W. T. Kinch officiated at both services.