William Nevin Tatlow Hurst

William Nevin Tatlow Hurst, ISO (11 April 1868 – 24 December 1946) was a senior Tasmanian civil servant.

Tasmania's capital city, Hobart, was where he spent his life, with the suburb of New Town being his home at his birth in 1868, his marriage in 1899 and at his death in 1946.

Hurst's grandparents, Anthony Tatlow (1791–1861) and Mary Moore (1812–1865) migrated from County Cavan, Ireland, arriving at the Tasmanian port of Hobart Town on 26 June 1833.

As a school-leaver aged 17, he chose to start work in the government Department of Lands and Surveys, as a junior draftsman.

An obituary for Hurst in a local newspaper recalls his keen interest in playing sport and helping to develop and manage various sporting clubs in Hobart, as well as his close involvement with his local church: He formerly was a keen cricketer and played with New Town until district cricket was abandoned during the First World War.

He was a life-long member of St John's Anglican Church, New Town, and for many years was churchwarden and Synod representative.

They prepared official government cadastral maps representing the physical features of the territory and showing the boundaries and ownership of parcels of land, as these details were brought back from field trips by the surveyors.

[27] An official photograph of the members of the Lyons Tasmanian state government in 1926, entitled "Labor members of Parliament – M O'Keefe, J Cleary, P Kelly, A Lawson, C Culley, W Shoobridge, JA Guy, J Belton, JA Lyons, AG Ogilvie, J Hurst and G Becker"[28] has been mistakenly thought (anecdotally) to depict William Nevin Tatlow Hurst.

One of his obituaries attests to his being well-loved: An exceptionally large number of people attended the funeral of Mr. William Nevin Tatlow Hurst, former Tasmanian Secretary of Lands, at Cornelian Bay today.

Counsel) made the presentation, and in doing so referred, in eulogistic terms, to Mr. Hurst’s career, which commenced when he entered the office as a boy in 1885.

(The Surveyor, p. 274)[33] One of Hurst's intellectual passions was nomenclature, the naming of Tasmania's places (towns, streets etc.)

In each article he set out what was currently known about the origins of Tasmania's place names and he asked the public to send any new information to the Mercury.

These are not personal papers but maps, pamphlets, and scrapbooks of newspaper clippings and other items of historical interest about life and government at that time.

[49] TAHO (c) Alphabetical descriptive list of immigrants arriving under the indenture system – details of name, ship, marital state, age, religion, native place, trade & bounty paid, January 1854 to December 1856.

[50] PRONI holds copies of some of the original baptism, confirmation and burial records for the Hurst family in Greyabbey in the 1800s.

PRONI's reel MIC 1/300/2 also holds records from the Church of Ireland – for the Parish of Drung, County Cavan.