Thomas Bracken

Thomas Bracken
Born	c. December 1841 Clones, County Monaghan, Ireland
Died	16 February 1898 (aged 56) Dunedin, New Zealand
Occupation	Poet, journalist, politician
Nationality	New Zealander
Ethnicity	Irish
Citizenship	British
Notable works	God Defend New Zealand
Spouse	Helen Hester Copley
Children	Charles Copley Bracken

Thomas Bracken (c. December 1841 – 16 February 1898) was an Irish-born New Zealand poet, journalist and politician. He wrote "God Defend New Zealand", one of the two national anthems of New Zealand, and was the first person to publish the phrase "God's Own Country" as applied to New Zealand. He also won the Otago Caledonian Society’s prize for poetry.

Bracken was born at Clones, County Monaghan, Ireland. His mother died in 1846 and his father in 1852. He was sent to Australia at the age of 12 to join his uncle, John Kiernan, at Geelong, Victoria.

Bracken was apprenticed to a pharmacist in Bendigo, later moved around to work on farms as a shearer and drover, and for a time was a gold fossicker and store keeper. At that time he began writing tales over the activities of the diggers involved in the goldrush, and about stock men and sheep men. He also established Thomas Bracken and Co with Alexander Bathgate to buy and operate the Evening Herald until it was superseded in 1890 by the liberal Globe.

In early 1869 at the age of 25 he moved to Dunedin in New Zealand, where a volume containing a selection of poems he had written in Australia was published. While working as a shearer and at various odd jobs, he carried on writing, and published a small book of verses, Flights among the Flax. This was noticed in literary circles, and he won the Otago Caledonian Society’s prize for poetry.

Determined to enter journalism, Bracken took a staff position on the Otago Guardian. While at the Guardian he met John Bathgate who soon after, in 1875, established the Saturday Advertiser "to foster a national spirit in New Zealand and encourage colonial literature". Bracken also wrote for the Morning Herald and the Catholic The New Zealand Tablet. He was born into a Catholic family, but lapsed, and was a freethinker and a freemason.

Bracken became editor and immediately began to encourage local writers. Talented contributors were attracted and the Advertiser’s circulation reached 7000 copies which was a notable achievement for that era. Encouraged by this literary and commercial success, Bracken contributed some of his own satire, humour and verse, including God Defend New Zealand, published in 1876, which was widely admired and became the national anthem. He wrote Not Understood in 1879.

...
Wikipedia