Globe-trotting journalist and chronicler of explorers’ lives
John Bell Thomson
b May 9, 1931 d June 12, 2022
John Thomson (JT to his colleagues) was a second-generation wordsmith who considered journalism a craft and tried never to spoil its image by calling it a profession.
His life in the fourth estate and later as an author spanned decades; from 1950s Sydney and the pre-Murdoch days of London’s once thriving Fleet Street, to a politically turbulent post-colonial Tanzania.
He was eventually forced to leave his home in Dar es Salaam (under a cloud not of his making) and return to his birth land in the late 1960s, accompanied by his wife and three young children.
Thomson had two editorial contracts in Tanzania (where he met and married Bala Barot); from 1961 to 1964 and from 1965 to 1969. During these years he bore witness to defining events like the reformation of the nation from Tanganyika to Tanzania.
His time as an expat newsman in Tanzania came to an abrupt halt in March 1969 when his employer at The Standard newspaper suddenly announced his contract was over. He was told he should also immediately leave the country, or risk being arrested as an enemy of then President Julius Nyerere.
His crime? A seemingly innocuous court report printed a day earlier detailing a property dispute between a local builder and Nyerere’s younger brother, Joseph.
Though completely accurate, the use of the name Nyerere in even a minor court report struck a major nerve in the ranks of the ruling Tanu Party.
Though not responsible for the court report, Thomson was told that he would be the sacrificial lamb to placate both the Tanu hierarchy and the Tanzanian chief of police, who later sought the Kiwi out for a ‘‘please explain’’ conversation.
The ‘‘basis’’ for the dismissal turned out to be purely financial. Thomson had just a few months to run on his contract, whereas the staffer responsible for the story had just begun a new four-year term on the paper.
Returning to New Zealand with his family, Thomson had a brief period at the Otago Daily Times in Dunedin, then (now with four children) moved to Wellington. In January 1972, he embarked on a 12-year tenure, defending press freedoms and the regular threat of defamation action as chief subeditor at New Zealand Truth.
He once commented that although Truth was often vilified as a gutter rag, few could deny its popularity. When the newspaper relocated to Auckland in the 1980s, he chose to remain in Wellington and began a more ‘‘back-end’’ role as a duty editor at the now defunct national news agency, the New Zealand Press Association (NZPA).
A strong unionist, part of Thomson’s time at NZPA was served as ‘‘father of the chapel’’, the senior representative of the unionised staff. He helped convince NZPA’s owners of the need to update ageing furniture to modern ergonomic standards as a way of boosting productivity and reducing absenteeism, in part due to the growing incidence of occupational overuse syndrome.
In his self-published memoir, Words of Passage, he said his appointment at NZPA largely came about because then agency head Graeme Jenkins sought an ‘‘avuncular senior fellow’’ who would not seek one of NZPA’s foreign postings. After more than 16 years working out of the country, this suited Thomson greatly.
Despite this understanding, he secured several overseas assignments for NZPA, including covering the withdrawal of New Zealand’s last military personnel from Singapore in 1989, the 75th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings in 1990 and the 50th anniversary of the battles of Greece and Crete during World War II.
When retirement finally loomed, Thomson embraced it fully, knowing precisely how he would spend his days.
Collectively, the journeys he took while at NZPA helped map his postretirement future. He turned his formidable reporting and research skills to writing for his own interests. Several non-fiction works made it to the publishing stage with books ranging from New Zealand military history (Warrior Nation) to 20th century Antarctic exploration.
He wrote the world’s first complete biography of New Zealand-born sailor and adventurer Frank Worsley, Shackleton’s Captain, which was made into an awardwinning docudrama co-produced by German and New Zealand interests.
His most recent titles included Climbing the Pole, which delved into the backstory and egos of mountaineering rivals Sir Edmund Hillary and Sir Vivian Fuchs during the somewhat incendiary 1955-58 Trans-Antarctic Expedition, and Lost, a dissection of the diaries of Thomas Orde-Lees.
Orde-Lees served as motor/storeman on Sir Ernest Shackleton’s vessel Endurance. In 1915, the ship became trapped and crushed by Antarctic pack ice, eventually sinking.
Orde-Lees was the only crew member to keep a daily record of the entire expedition, from day one to the day the entire crew left South America for England, more than two years later.
Thomson spent about the same period reading and reworking the voluminous Orde-Lees diaries into what he described as a more ‘‘digestible’’ format.
Cris de Boos, his UK-based publisher, said Thomson’s death was a huge loss for the close-knit Antarctic historical research and special interest communities.
In total, Thomson penned six books, including Frank Worsley, a 2014 revision of his best-selling Shackleton’s Captain.
Thomson was delighted to see recent news footage of the discovery of Endurance’s final resting place in the Weddell Sea. It helped ‘‘round off’’ his interest in the ill-fated expedition and the inspiring survival story of its crew, in which Worsley played a huge role.
At 73, Thomson’s fascination with the frozen continent bore more personal fruit when New Zealand zoologist and Antarctic researcher Dr Peter Carey invited him to provide history lectures for fee-paying tourists during the six-week summer cruise period of 2003-04.
He embraced the opportunity and made three journeys south to the Antarctic Peninsula from Chile.
He described the trips as invigorating and exciting but also highly demanding because of the unpredictability of the weather and sea conditions. An offer to return the following summer was politely declined.
In March last year, John and Bala embarked on one final journey, moving from the Hutt Valley across the Tasman to live with their eldest daughter in Kurrajong, New South Wales.
Some years earlier, he had been diagnosed with bowel cancer but in his usual stoic manner, he chose not to let his condition call the shots, concentrating instead on his research and writing. However, his condition worsened in recent weeks and after a brief hospital admission, he died peacefully in his sleep on June 12.
He is survived by Bala, a well-known Indian chef and Access Radio broadcaster; children Meera, Priya, Viraj and Kiran, and nine grandchildren.