Nat Gould

Thomas Tomkinson 1804-1879

Thomas Tomkinson was born in 1804 at Endon in Staffordshire,the son of Thomas Tomkinson 1780-1834 and his wife nee Ellen Peake 1779-1859, and was baptised on 20 November 1804.

In 1825 he emigrated to Montevideo in Uruguay, where he became a successful merchant, banker, financier, racehorse breeder, and forester. He was also a substantial benefactor and philanthropist.

On 2 February 1834 he married Joaquina Navia in Montevideo, Uruguay. She was born on 21 August 1809 in Montevideo, the daughter of General Spaniard Joaquin Alvarez Cienfuegos Navia. She died on 30 May 1871.

They had the following children:

Joaquina Prudence Tomkinson. She was born on 28 April 1836 in Montevideo. On 9 October 1856 she was married there to Charles Harratt, the son of John Harratt. He was born on 14 May 1831 in Montevideo, and died on 27 January 1873. She died on 3 November 1918 in Newenden, Kent.

Thomas Tomkinson. He was born in October 1840 in Montevideo, and died there in 1890.

Helena Maria Bernabela Tomkinson. She was born on 11 June 1843, and died on 29 June 1892.

Their father Thomas Tomkinson had emigrated to Montevideo in 1825 to become an employee of an established British firm there, of which he eventually became the proprietor. He introduced the eucalyptus tree into the country (1).

With other British expatriates he formed a Society for Horse Racing in the European style (2).

In 1857, together with Samuel Lafone, he founded the Banco Commercial in 1857, and was its president from 1870 to 1879.

In the outskirts of Montevideo he developed a beautiful park, now called Parque Tomkinson. The road that passes through it is known as Camino Tomkinson.

Thomas Tomkinson died on 23 January 1879 at La Selva near Montevideo,and was buried in the British Cemetery in Montevideo (Plot B 003), where there is a monumental inscription to his memory.

(1) He became known in Uruguay as "The eucalyptus Englishman”. He had asked his friend Jorge Hodskin to bring him, from a botanical garden, seeds of a tree that was big and shady. The tree thus introduced was Eucalyptus soleudus. In his property in Paso de Arena, Thomas Tomkinson planted these seeds, and they developed into trees that have become the most useful and commercial tree in the country. Seeds and plants were taken over to Argentina, where the vast pampas was almost treeless and where the trees flourished. Soon there were eucalyptus plantations all over Argentina and Uruguay. Large plantations of eucalyptus give protection and shade to the cattle on the estancias. Furthermore most estancia fencing in Uruguay is made from eucalyptus timber. Trunks of the trees are nowadays exported to Europe.
(2) Racing probably took the form of jumping over hurdles. In 1861 the racetrack was situated in Punta Carretas near the Golf Club, and the track ran along Julia Maria Sosa, now called Calle Ellauri. In Bulevar Artigas and Garcia Cortinas they built a grandstand, removed in 1889 to Maroñas when the British discontinued racing there. Together with other British expatriates Thomas Tomkinson started steeplechase racing in Pueblo Itazaingo, near Moroñas. There they held monthly races with criollo horses. When Thomas Tomkinson imported thoroughbred racing horses, great changes were soon made at the track.