Major Thomas Lord, c. 1840

Thomas Daunt Lord (1783–1865) was the commandant of the convict station on Maria Island from 1825 until 1832. A soldier by profession, Lord had joined the army at fifteen and later transferred to the West India Regiment. While serving in the Bahamas in 1810, he married Susan Greenslade (c. 1792–1849). In 1824, he successfully applied for a land grant in Van Diemen’s Land and embarked with Susan and their five children for Hobart, arriving in January 1825. In September that year he was appointed commandant of the Maria Island settlement, established for the reception of convict re-offenders whose misdemeanours were insufficient to warrant exile to Macquarie Harbour. The Maria Island settlement became a productive supplier of clothing and other necessaries, with Lord overseeing the construction of a commissariat store and penitentiary along with other buildings. After the station’s closure, Lord returned to his property, Okehampton, at Triabunna, and was appointed assistant police magistrate for the district of Swansea. He was suspended from this position in 1834 when charged with having misappropriated government property; although he was acquitted the suspension stood. Susan Lord died at Okehampton in September 1849; Thomas outlived her by sixteen years and died in April 1865.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2015