Thomas Drury Smeaton

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.

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. His wife Selina later lived at Brunswick Road, Dulwich.

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.

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.

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.

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