John Ashburton Thompson

Who was John Ashburton Thompson?

John Ashburton Thompson was a British-Australian physician and an international authority on plague and leprosy.

Thompson,the eldest son of John Thompson, solicitor, was born in England in August 1846. He was educated at St Paul's School, and University College London, and qualified for the diplomas of the Royal College of Surgeons and Physicians. In 1878 he obtained the degree of M.D. with distinction at the Brussels University. From 1872 to 1878 he was surgeon at King's Cross to the Great Northern Railway Company, and also had a private practice. His health breaking down towards the end of 1878 from overwork, he went first to New Zealand and then to New South Wales.

He led an open-air life until his health was completely restored, and in 1883 was sent to Mackay to investigate an epidemic of dengue. Returning to Sydney in 1884 he was given the post of temporary medical officer to the Board of Health, and a year later was appointed its chief medical inspector and deputy medical adviser to the government of New South Wales. There was no public health act and his activities were therefore much restricted, but in 1896, having been made president of the board of health, he assisted Premier Sir George Reid in drafting a bill, which became law in November of that year. He also prepared all the necessary regulations which were still unchanged at the time of his death.