John Turnbull Thomson

John Turnbull Thomson (10 August 1821 – 16 October 1884) was a British civil engineer and artist who played an instrumental role in the development of the early infrastructure of nineteenth-century Singapore and New Zealand.

After his father was killed in a hunting accident in 1830, the young Thomson and his mother went to live in Abbey St. Bathans, Berwickshire.

He was responsible for the design and construction of a number of notable engineering works including bridges, roads, and hospitals.

[citation needed] Thomson was a founder of the Otago and Southland Institutes of New Zealand, to which he contributed numerous papers on scientific subjects including ethnological studies.

Through his knowledge of Hindustani and Malay, he became interested in comparative linguistics and developed a theory of racial diffusion based on philological evidence.

Thomson's great-grandson, John Hall-Jones, was a historian specializing in the history of southern New Zealand.

[2] The Turnbull Thomson Falls are a cataract in the upper reaches of the Kitchener River, within Mount Aspiring National Park.