Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/587

 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY ^6 1 Mr. Henry William Thompson A FEW years of seafarin;^- sucm to supply an excellent training for colonial occupations in general. The yotmg fellow with eyes to see, and ears to hear, and mind to reflect and arrange and discriminate, who voages to various countries, accjuires a knowledge and a training that is apt to prove ver- useful to him in after life. The buftets with which he meets in these journeyings to and fro and up and down the earth may also be said to give him a sensible, mental, and moral balance. This theme has been well worked out in many nautical novels, and examples of its being true to lite are frequently to be observed. Mr. Thompson, a respected citizen of Port Adelaide, comes within the category. Mr. Henry William Thompson was born at Rotherhithe, on the Thames, England, on March 2, 1839. He was educated at Wick Hall College, Hackney, and there won the silver medal at Christmas, 1852. While y(t young, he decided to take to the sea; and for several years he roved the oceans, a type of the smart, intelligent, British sailor. He was for some time engaged in the West Indies mail service, and also in the transport service. In 1854 he volunteered into the navy, and joined the Black -Sea lleet on board H.M.S. Oiiccii, Hammer ^ Co., Fkoto ,^,j,^^^. j,^ ^|^^ Bosphorus at thc^ time of the Crimean War. After the cessation of hostilities, he returned to the mercantile marine, and voyaged to and fro, learning many things. In i860 he arrived in South Australia as second mate of the A'Civ Marii'arct, and served in the intercolonial trade. For three (jr four years he was an officer on the; Atrcvida, Ria/fo, and other vessels. An opportunity offering for shore employment, Mr. Thompson left the sea, and was engaged by Messrs. Clarke, McKenzie, & Co., shii)s' chandlers, etc., Port Adelaide, with whom he remained until the business was sold in 1S71. In that year, with Mr. William Russell, he purchased the concern, but subsecjuentlv obtained sole control, and to this day owns