William Thomson

1865-1897

William was born 1865 in Scotland. He emigrated to Australia in 1880 and worked as a plasterer in Melbourne and Adelaide before settling in Perth. Upon arrival, he noticed the lack of education facilities for deaf children and wrote to his sister, Eleanor, asking her to come to Perth and help establish a school for the Deaf. She was a teacher of the deaf in Melbourne, and moved to WA with Mr Henry Witchell, where they established a school in September 1896, known as the "Western Australian Deaf and Dumb Institute".

William then started working as a collector for the Deaf school, and would canvass a wide area of the state for donations, travelling to Geraldton, Coolgardie, the Avon Valley and the Great Southern region.

William was well known around town and around the state as a collector. Once, while in Coolgardie in 1897, he narrowly escaped a fire at the hotel he was staying in. At first he thought the vibrations that woke him up were a bar fight, but he soon realised that there was a fire and escaped through a window.

Unfortunately, William died soon after his dramatic fire escape after being hit by a train during his work as a collector. He was only 31 years old. His death was commented on in newspapers around the country.

You may notice two variations of his name: Thompson and Thomson.

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