Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/588

 562 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY Mr H. W. Thompson the business. Thus, for all his life, Mr. Thompson has been connected with shipping, and to the pleasure of his friends, he retains his old nautical appearance. For a long period of years Mr. Thompson has been associated with the municipal affairs of Port Adelaide, and, as is well known in that town, he has conferred great benefits on the locality. He was for some years Chairman of the Portland Estate District Council, now a ward of Port Adelaide. He next became a member of the Port Adelaide Council, of which, in 1 880-1 and 1881-2, he was Mayor. F"rom the first he was vigorous as a councillor, and he strove his best to serve at once his own ward and the whole town. Some of the greatest improvements made there were sponsored by him, and it was thus that Port Adelaide was relieved of the ancient name of " Mudholia." He introduced the proposal of asphalting the footpaths so strenuously that he brought the motion forward three times before the Council would agree to it. After vacating the mayoral office, Mr. Thompson was requisitioned to stand for Parliament, but, desiring respite from public duties, he declined. At the following general election, however, he was nominated and was defeated in a field of ten candidates. There was a ruggedness and vitality about his political views that would have been serviceable. In the early "eighties" Mr. Thompson took a foremost part in forming the Naval Reserve at a time when war with Russia was considered j)ossible. He held the first commission granted in South Australia, and served for eight and a half years under Captain Walcot, R.N., rising to the position of senior officer. He is now on the retired list, with the rank of Commander. He was commissioned a Justice of the Peace in 1880, and was the second President of the State Children's Council. He is one of the most genial and excellent of the citizens of Port Adelaide, and is esteemed as one of the most intelligent. Professor Edward Henry Rennie, M.A., D.Sc, FCC. NEW SOUTH WALES was the birthplace of Professor Rennie, who is the son of Mr. Edward A. Rennie, Auditor-General of the mother Colony. He received his early education at Port Street Public School, Sydney, proceeding thence to Sydney Grammar .School, where, after his pupilage, he became an assistant master. In 1876 he was appointed Mathematical and Science Master in Brisbane Grammar School, whence, after a year's occupancy, he proceeded to FLngland to enlarge his scientific knowledge generally, and make a special study of Chemistry. He accordingly entered the Royal School of Mines, South Kensington, London; and in 1881 he took the degree of D.Sc. at the London University. Dr. Rennie officiated as demonstrator in Chemistry at the Medical School, St. Mary's Hospital, London. Returning to Sydney in 1883, he became assistant in the New South Wales Laboratory. Two years later he became Angas Professor of Chemistry at the University of Adelaide, which position he still holds, as well as Lecturer in Metallurgy ; he is also an honorary lecturer to Adelaide School of Mines, and has been Government Inspector of Explosives. Professor Rennie is a Pillow of the Chemical Society of London and Berlin, and a P'ellow of the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain and Ireland. He has been twice elected President of the Royal Society of South Australia, and is one of the local secretaries of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science.