Biography

Thomas was the eighth child of Agnes Louisa Carney and Thomas Ireland. He was born on 24 September 1876 in Dunedin. His first employment, recorded in the 1899 and 1900 City of Dunedin Electoral Rolls, appears to have been as a cabinet-maker. However, when he married he gave his occupation as “clerk”.

The only one of his siblings to marry in his father’s lifetime, Thomas married Davina Nicoll on 20 December 1902. Davina, who was 24 years old, was a tailoress and born in Dunedin; she was the daughter of Betsy Black and David Nicoll, a labourer. The witnesses were Peter Ireland, a carriage builder, of 64 Union St, Dunedin, and Mary Moir Nicoll of 26 Hanover St. The ceremony was conducted by the Rev. James Chisholm at Knox Church. Knox Church records incorrectly give the date as 15 January 1903.

On 5 August 1903, Thomas and Davina’s first child (and Thomas and Agnes Louisa Ireland’s first grandchild) Gordon Nicoll Ireland was born at Union Street. Gordon was later to become a playwright, with a BBC production to his credit. However, his parents did not stay together for long. In the 1905-06 and 1908 City of Dunedin Electoral Rolls, Davina Ireland was living at 59 Stuart Street while Thomas had returned to the family home in Union Street. In 1911 Davina moved to 7 Pitt Street. By 1919 the New Zealand Post Office Directory shows that Thomas Ireland was an acting clerk, living in Ohakune. In 1921 he had moved on to Thames.

Although Thomas had lived apart from his wife, they set up home together in Hamilton, where Thomas worked as an accountant for the firm Ireland and Burn in Oxford Street. The 1928 and 1931 electoral rolls for Hamilton show the Irelands living in Grey Street. A second child, Evelyn Rosa Ireland, was born on 27 June 1922 in Hamilton. She was named after her first cousin Evelyn Rosa Watts, born 11 December 1908.

Thomas and Davina separated again after 1931, when Thomas returned to Dunedin. Evelyn lived with her mother in Auckland until Davina died on 2 November 1935, when she was put in an Auckland orphanage before moving to Dunedin to live with her father (1936-42). She also shared the house with her aunts Louisa and Isabella (whom she called “Bobbie”), and a boarder, Mr Jenkins. When she was 21 years old, Evelyn moved to Australia and become a naturalised Australian. She worked for the Air Force during World War II.

Thomas died on 9 December 1942 in Dunedin. His ashes were buried in the Thomas Ireland family plot.

Others buried here: Thomas’s parents Thomas and Agnes Louisa Ireland, and his sisters Agnes Louisa, Isabella, Jessie and Lilian.