Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/537

 were held in London, Adelaide, and Sydney to celebrate the event, and Todd was made C.M.G. The subsequent construction of the telegraph line under Todd's direction, joining West Australia to the Eastern colonies, practically completed the system for the continent, which finally extended over 5000 miles. The whole came into being in less than forty years after Todd had landed in Australia.

Todd, who was made K.C.M.G. in 1893, retained his offices till June 1905, although the Commonwealth Act of 1901 introduced alight changes into his duties and title. So long as he remained in the public service the state parliament declined to pass an Act for the compulsory retirement of septuagenarians. He joined the Royal Astronomical Society on 8 April 1864, and was elected F.R.S. in 1889. The University of Cambridge conferred on him the honorary degree of M.A. in 1886. He was a fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society and of the Society of Electrical Engineers. He died at Adelaide on 29 Jan. 1910, and was buried there.

He married on 5 April 1855 Alice Gillam (d. 1898), daughter of Edward Bell of Cambridge, and left one son. Dr. C. E. Todd, and four daughters.  TOMSON, ARTHUR (1859–1905), landscape painter, born at Chelmsford, Essex, on 5 March 1859, was sixth child of Whitbread Tomson by his wife Elizabeth Maria. From a preparatory school at Ingatestone in Essex he went to Uppingham. As a lad he showed an artistic bent, and on leaving school he studied art at Dusseldorf. Returning to England in 1882. he settled down to landscape painting, working chiefly in Sussex and Dorset. hH} landscapes were poetic, and rather similar in sentiment to the art of George Mason and Edward Stott. Although he was at his best in landscape, cats were favourite subjects of study, and he occasionally painted other animals. At the New English Art Club, of which he was an early member and in whose affairs he took warm interest, he was a regular exhibitor, but he also showed at the Royal Academy from 1883 to 1892 and at the New Gallery. An excellent and characteristic example of his refined art is the canvas called 'The Chalk Pit,' which was presented by his widow to the Victoria and Albert Museum. He was also an interesting writer on art, and his book on 'Jean-François Millet and the Barbizon School' (1903; reissued in 1905) is sympathetic and discriminating. For some years he was art critic for the 'Morning Leader,' under the pseudonym of Verind, and he contributed to the 'Art Journal' descriptions of places in the southern counties, illustrated by his own drawings. He illustrated 'Concerning Cats,' poems selected by his first wife 'Graham R. Tomson' (1892).

He died on 14 June 1905 at Robertsbridge, and was buried in Steeple churchyard, near Wareham, in Dorset.

Tomson married in 1887 his first wife Rosamund (1863-1911), writer of poetry, yoimgest child of Benjamin Williams Ball, whom he divorced in 1896, and who afterwards married Mr. H. B. Marriott Watson. Tomson married secondly in 1898 Miss Hastings, a descendant of Warren Hastings, who survived him with a son.

 TOOLE, JOHN LAWRENCE (1830–1906), actor and theatrical manager, born at 50 St. Mary Axe, London, on 12 March 1830, and baptised in the church of St. Andrew Undershaft on 25 July, was younger son of James Toole by his wife Elizabeth (Parish Reg.). His father at the time was an India House messenger, but afterwards combined the offices of City toast master and usher in the Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey. As toast master he enjoyed an extended fame. 'An Ode to Toast Master Toole' appeared in 'Punch' on 11 Nov. 1844. In 1846 Dickens wrote of him as 'the renowned Mr. Toole, the most emphatic, vigorous, attentive, and stentorian toast master in the Queen's dominions.' Thackeray, in his 'Roundabout Paper' on 'Thorns in the Cushion,' describes 'Mr. Toole ' bawling behind the lord mayor's chair. Educated at the City of London School, young Toole began life as a wine merchant's clerk, and while so employed became a member of the City Histrionic Club, which gave performances in the Sussex Hall, Leadenhall Street, making his first appearance as Jacob Earwig in ' Boots at the Swan.' Encouraged by Dickens, who saw him in a monologue entertainment at the Walworth Literary Institute in 1852, Toole made one or two experimental appearances that year for benefits in town and country, notably 