Thomas Dixon

Thomas Hill Dixon was the first Superintendant of Convicts. He arrived on the Scindian 1 June 1850 with Edmund Henderson, Comptroller-General of Convicts, and James Manning, Clerk of Works, and the first group of convicts. Dixon was previously Deputy Governor of Millbank Prison.

O'Brien & Statham-Drew:
[He] was innovative and humane, but was indicted for embezzling public funds in 1859. At the Perth Court hearing he was released pending resubmission and managed to flee to Singapore. He eventually arrived back in Fremantle and lived with his eldest daughter Mary and her husband near Williams until his death in 1880. O'Brien & Statham-Drew: 89.

Erickson:
DIXON, Thomas Hill, arr. 1.6.1850 per Scindian with wife Matilda & 2 chd. Chd. Mary Cooke b. 1841, Hannah Mati1da b. 1843 d. 1911. Supt. of Convict Establishment 1.1850-10.1859. Fremantle.

References and Links

Hitchcock, J.K. 1929, The History of Fremantle, The Front Gate of Australia, 1829-1929, Fremantle City Council: 33. [Hitchcock has the surname wrong, as 'Dickson'.]

O'Brien, Jacqueline & Pamela Statham-Drew 2013, Court and Camera: The Life and Times of A.H. Stone, Fremantle Press.

Stebbing, Tony 1999, 'Thomas Hill Dixon: first superintendent of convicts in Western Australia', Early Days: Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Western Australian Historical Society, vol. 11, part 5: 612-628.

Photo by Alfred Stone.

Freotopia

This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 20 July, 2017 and hosted at freotopia.org/people/dixonthomas.html (it was last updated on 12 August, 2022), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.