Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

Colin Sinclair Thomson (Colin Sinclair-Thomson) was the second son of John Sinclair Thomson and his second wife, Annie née Gould. He was born on 27 May 1888 at Dunedin. All the children’s births were registered as Thomson, but, like their parents, they frequently used the Sinclair-Thomson name. At the beginning of June 1896, Mrs Sinclair Thomson gave a juvenile fancy dress party which was a great success. “Master K. Sinclair-Thomson and his younger brother, were both dressed as clowns, capitally got up, and playing the part to perfection.” That younger brother was Colin. It is likely that Colin and his siblings were educated privately in Dunedin. He then attended Otago Boys’ High School, Wanganui Collegiate School and Christs College in Christchurch.

Mr J. Sinclair-Thomson resigned from his position as manager of the Bank of New Zealand in Dunedin in November 1907. as he intended leaving for England with his family. Mr and Mrs Sinclair-Thomson also had a residence at Goodwood north of Dunedin, where they would spend six weeks in the summer. This was not his first trip to the Old Country nor the last. Passengers on the “Ruapehu” from England to New Zealand at the end of January 1910 included Mr and Mrs J. Sinclair-Thomson, Miss Sinclair-Thomson [their only daughter Kitty] and Master Sinclair-Thomson [their youngest son John]. In April 1910 Mr Sinclair-Thomson resigned from his position on the council of the Otago Acclimatisation Society as he intended settling in South Canterbury. By mid-May the South Canterbury Hunt was meeting at his Wainui property, Winchester. Both Mr and Mrs Sinclair-Thomson were soon involved in their usual community activities and social life.

Colin Sinclair Thomson embarked on a naval career and by 1906 was on H.M.S. Powerful, the flagship of the Australian Squadron. When his ship was at Lyttelton, he would visit his parents in Dunedin and later at Geraldine. By March 1915, Lieutenant Colin Sinclair-Thomson from Geraldine, who was midshipman on H.M.S. Powerful and lieutenant on H.M.S. Cambrian in 1913, was on war service on board H.M.S. Ambuscade. C.S. Thomson had been serving with the Royal Navy on the destroyer in the North Sea from the start of the war. He was incorrectly reported as killed in the Persian Gulf. It was his older brother, Kenneth Sinclair-Thomson, who was killed in action on 3 March 1915. Kenneth had given up his medical studies to go follow a career as a soldier, obtaining a commission in the Indian Army. He had been at the front for only a short time when he lost his life. Another brother, George Alastair Sinclair-Thomson (known as Alastair), was also on service at this time. He had gone Home in the early months of the war and obtained a commission in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Captain Alastair Thomson was killed in France on 21 July 1916, at which time Colin was still serving in the North Sea.

Mr, Mrs, and Miss Sinclair Thomson, of Geraldine, left for England in May 1915, to be nearer their family. The youngest son of the family, John Hamilton Sinclair-Thomson, had already gone Home. Colin Sinclair Thomson married Australian-born Royale Carter Falk on 26 May 1915 at All Souls, Westminster, England. Their son, Alastair Houlder Sinclair-Thomson was born on 17 March 1917 at Bickleigh-Roborough, South Devon. In 1916, while in England, Miss Kitty Sinclair Thomson was engaged and married to a New Zealander who was serving. In September 1916, Lieutenant Colin Sinclair Thomson, R.N., was promoted to the command of the destroyer Leven. By the end of November 1918 Mr J. Sinclair-Thomson was thinking of returning to New Zealand. He did return by the steamer Oxfordshire in January 1919. As a member of the War Contingent Association, he had done much valuable work in England. ‘He will be much missed in New Zealand circles here, for, throughout the war, he has been an unostentatious and generous supporter of every effort for the welfare of “the boys.”’ Both Mr and Mrs Sinclair-Thomson took an active part in the voluntary work at Walton Hospital.

Colin Sinclair-Thomson gave his whole career to the Navy. In 1920, he commanded H.M.S. Verdun which brought the body of the “Unknown Warrior” to England. He later commanded destroyers in the Atlantic Fleet. Having been appointed second naval member of the New Zealand Naval Board, Captain C.S. Thomson, R.N., and his wife and son left Southampton by the Rangitikei on 15 January 1932. Mrs Sinclair-Thomson, of The Crossing, Woodbury, Mrs Redmond Neill (Kitty) and Mr Hamilton Sinclair-Thomson, of Timaru, went to Wellington to meet them on their arrival on 18 February. Captain Sinclair-Thomson was appointed an honorary naval aide-de-camp to the Governor-General. There followed family visits to and from Wellington over the next two and a half years. Alastair H. Sinclair-Thomson studied at Christ’s College in Christchurch. While in Wellington, Colin played golf. In August 1934, the family left Wellington to return to England. A few months later, Captain C. S. Thomson was selected as the first commanding officer of the British Navy’s new cruiser, H.M.S. Ajax, which would serve abroad. He was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal in 1935 and the King George VI Coronation Medal in 1937. He rose to the rank of Rear-Admiral.

Colin Sinclair Thomson, of Redthorn, Chiltam, Kent, died on 24 July 1959 at Kent and Canterbury Hospital, Canterbury. He was 71 years old. His widow, Royale, died in January 1989, aged 97, and their only child, Alastair, in 2009, aged 92. His father died on 1 September 1928 at his residence, “The Crossing”, Geraldine. He had lost two sons in the war and two others had served. The youngest son, John Hamilton Sinclair-Thomson (known as Hamilton), had also joined the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and served from 1918, although he was under-age. Both Colin and Hamilton answered the call in the Second World War – Colin with the Royal Navy and Hamilton with the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Redmond Barry Neill was the serviceman who had married their sister Kitty in 1916. Redmond who had left with New Zealand Forces was transferred to the Royal Irish Fusiliers. Kitty and Redmond’s oldest son, Patrick Fyans Sinclair Neill, was born in 1917 in England and came to New Zealand with his parents after the Armistice. Having left for Sandhurst in 1935, he as gazetted to the Royal Irish Fusiliers in 1937. Unfortunately, he had to be invalided to England from Malta in 1938 and subsequently returned home, dying at the family farm, Barrosa, Mount Somers, in June 1943. In 1939, his sister Josephine Hester Neill married Warner Derrick Westenra who was to lose his life in 1941 in Libya. Josephine married again in 1945. Two other sons of Kitty and Redmond served in World War Two, Kenneth Percival Fyans Neill who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, and Gordon Barry Fyans Neill. Lyonel Clare Fyans Neill of Albury, South Canterbury, who lost his life in 1917 while serving with the Royal Flying Corps, was a nephew of Redmond Barry Neill.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [18 January 2022]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of internal Affairs) [18 January 2022]; Press, 5 June 1896, Wanganui Herald, 2 May 1906, Otago Witness, 24 April 1907, 17 March 1915, West Coast Times, 21 November 1907, NZ Herald, 31 January 1910, 6 April 1915, 28 July 1934, Otago Daily Times, 16 April 1910, 12 March 1915, 31 July 1916, 30 May 1917, 25 January 1919, 27 February 1940, Timaru Herald, 19 May 1910, 8 March 1915, 31 December 1932, 26 February 1940, Press, 10 March 1915, 1 October 1916, 15 & 18 February 1932, 6 May 1932, 28 September 1933, 1 May 1935, 9 July 1943, Auckland Star, 26 April 1915, Sun, 1 June 1915, NZ Herald, 2 June 1915, 2 October 1931, 15 January 1935, Evening Post, 4 December 1918, 19 February 1932, 6 April 1932, Temuka Leader, 4 September 1928, Waikato Times, 16 April 1932, Star, 15 July 1932, Evening Star, 17 September 1934, Ashburton Guardian, 26 February 1940, 28 May 1943 (Papers Past) [19, 20, 21 & 23 January 2022]; Marriage record England (ancestry.com.au) [19 January 2022]; UK. Probate indexes (ancestry.com.au) [19 March 2022]

External Links

Related Documents

• SINCLAIR THOMSON Colin - newspaper clippings (pdf, 309.6 KB updated 04-Feb-2022)

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

TS