Trans-man a trail-blazing writer
Publisher says story important for people to know
Apioneering transgender man and chemistry researcher who wrote several books died last week when a train and the car he was driving collided near Morrinsville.
John Thorp, 90, published two books, describing how he transitioned from a woman to a man with the support of his first wife Joan who later died and how he got a second chance at love with his second wife Hazel.
Thorp was travelling home to Thames from Waikato Hospital on March 23 when his car and a train collided.
Hazel, who was a passenger, was able to walk from the vehicle but is still recovering at Waikato Hospital. Waikato DHB confirmed last night she was in a stable condition.
Thorp’s first book A Change for Good was published in 2006 by Cape Catley Publishers.
Cape Catley spokeswoman Jenny Cole described it as a memoir of his journey from a woman to man.
“[The publisher] saw it was a story of importance for people to know. A story of importance about society.”
The book tells of how UK-born Thorp, who was a lecturer at Guy’s Hospital in London, underwent surgery to make the transition with the support of a woman called Joan.
The pair moved to New Zealand in 1960 to escape what he described as intense media scrutiny and because Thorp secured a position as a chemistry lecturer at the University
It really was like he came from an era where he never thought he’d meet another person like him.
of Auckland. Emeritus professor Brian Davis said he worked with Thorp in the chemistry department, but in different areas. “My memories are of a quiet, reserved but always polite person.”
Thorp was a well regarded scientist and in 1969 accepted a job at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR).
However, when Joan developed heart problems in 1982 he retired so they could spend time together and they moved to the Coromandel before Joan died in 1989.
In 1995 he met his second wife Hazel and they ran a bed and breakfast in the Coromandel Harbour before moving to Thames in 2000 where they built a house overlooking the Firth.
Tommy Hamilton, a counsellor for LGBTQI+ support service Outline and also a trans-man, said he had met Thorp several times as part of transgender community events.
However the most memorable time was the launch of Thorp’s book A Change for Good in 2006 at the Women’s Bookshop in Auckland, which a group of transgender men attended. “He was really moved to meet young men who were having a life and experience similar to his,” Hamilton said.
“And it really was like he came from an era where he never thought he’d meet another person like him. So the power of the visibility of seeing these young men at his book launch, I think it was quite meaningful for him. He was very humble, he would have never seen himself as that [a pioneering transgender man].”
Hamilton recalled Thorp as a straight-laced, but lovely, kooky man. “He was very fit and very healthy.”
At the time he underwent genderreassignment surgery it would have been a very new procedure, he said.
“He was from that era where all plastic surgery was experimental. He was a scientist and he was very willing to jump in and give it a go I guess. He was a pioneer in that sense — a pioneering guinea pig.”
Former Human Rights Commission educator Julie Watson organised a transgender community meeting in Auckland where Thorp was the key guest about seven years ago.
“The overwhelming thing for me was the mutual delight in these people of many generations and ... the feeling that he had lived his life so unaware that there were so many transgender people as well.”
A funeral for Thorp will be held at the Thames Baptist Church tomorrow at 11am.
Tommy Hamilton, Outline counsellor