He bought a property at Governors Bay that he called 'Hemingford', from where he ran a dairy farm and supplied Lyttelton with firewood.
[2] The name still exists today as a street name, although it is corrupted to Scotston Avenue (with the area now regarded as belonging to the suburb of St Albans).
From the late 1850s until 1861, he owned Lochinvar Station in North Canterbury, on the Esk River, which he stocked with cattle.
Other successful candidates were Thomas Smith Duncan, Charles Bowen and Edward Templer; John Shand and Alfred Richard Creyke (who at the time was still representing the Avon electorate in Parliament[12]) were unsuccessful.
[13] Thomson was elected as Provincial Auditor on 25 October 1861, proposed by John Ollivier but opposed by James FitzGerald.
[2] Thomson represented the Avon electorate from an 1862 by-election, following the resignation of Alfred Richard Creyke, until the end of the term in 1866, when he retired.
Crosbie Ward wrote about him:[2] First rose burly Scotie – Thomson he the portly, big and bulky, round proportioned, talking loudly,
Other Captains of the Yeomanry Cavalry were pallbearers, including Crosbie Ward, William Sefton Moorhouse and John Cracroft Wilson.