Thomas Kirk

The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is botany. Employment is recorded with Victoria University of Wellington, Lincoln University and Australian National University. Distinctions recorded are Fellow of the Linnean Society of London and Fellow of the Geological Society of London.

• Name — Thomas Kirk • Born — 18 January 1828 • Birthplace — Coventry, Warwickshire, England • Died — 8 March 1898 • Resting Place — Karori Cemetery, Wellington • Place of death — Plimmerton, New Zealand • Occupation — Botanist writer teacher Public servant Churchman Surveyor • Parents — George Kirk Sarah West • Known for — Botanical expeditions 130 papers on Botany • Spouse — Sarah Jane Kirk née Mattocks (married 25 December 1850) • Organization — Auckland Institute • Children — 9, including Thomas William Kirk (1856–1936), Harry Borrer Kirk (1859–1948), Amy Kirk (1861–1945), Lily May Atkinson (1866–1921), Cybele Ethel Kirk (1870–1957)

Thomas was the son of a Coventry nurseryman, George Kirk, and Sarah West, a florist. As a consequence of his parents' involvement in nursery work, he displayed a keen interest in botany, and later worked at a timber mill in Coventry. On Christmas Day 1850 he married a silk marker, Sarah Jane Mattocks. Poor health and financial problems led to his emigrating to Auckland, arriving with his family on 9 February 1863. Thomas and Sarah Jane added another five children to their large family between 1864 and 1870; however, two (twins) died as infants and another daughter died at the age of five. Soon after his arrival Kirk started on a collection of botanical specimens. He prepared a set of ferns and other plants for the New Zealand Exhibition which was held in Dunedin in January 1865. In the following year he worked as surveyor, and in 1868 became a meteorological observer in Auckland. In the same year he was appointed secretary of the Auckland Institute and took on the position of museum curator, an office he filled for the next five years. Kirk took part in a number of botanical expeditions, writing and publishing reports on the results. These included Great Barrier and Little Barrier Islands in 1867, the east coast of Northland in 1868, the Thames goldfields in 1869, the Waikato district in 1870, and Rotorua and Taupō in 1872. Between 1869 and 1873 he found time to serve as secretary and treasurer of the Auckland Acclimatisation Society, teaching botany at the Auckland College and Grammar School and became an elected fellow of the Linnean Society of London in 1871. In early 1874 he moved to Wellington and until 1880 lectured there in natural sciences at Wellington College, which was then affiliated to the University of New Zealand. Kirk proved to be a skilled teacher, enjoying the respect of staff and students. In 1874 he became a member of the Wellington Philosophical Society, serving as president in 1878 and 1879. Sir Julius Vogel credited Kirk's work in helping to get the first Forestry Act passed in 1874. He was an elected Governor of the New Zealand Institute in 1875. He was appointed lecturer in natural science at Lincoln School of Agriculture, in Canterbury in 1881, and stayed until 1882, returning in 1883 and 1884. During this period he botanised in Arthur's Pass, Banks Peninsula, Lake Wakatipu and Stewart Island.

• Illustration — Sarah Jane Kirk in 1895 Kirk died in straitened circumstances of a pleural abscess on 8 March 1898. He was buried in an unmarked grave in Plot 3K of Karori Cemetery in Wellington. He was survived by his wife, Sarah, and five of his nine children. His two sons Harry Borrer Kirk and Thomas William Kirk both continued their work in education, public service and agriculture. His eldest daughter, Amy Kirk was a teacher, church worker and charitable aid hospital visitor in Wellington. Another daughter Lily May Atkinson, was a well-known suffragette and temperance campaigner who became president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of New Zealand (1902–1905) and helped found the New Zealand Society for Protection of Women and Children in Wellington. His youngest daughter Cybele Ethel Kirk, a suffragist, temperance evangelist, worked with unmarried and abandoned women and became a Justice of the Peace. Despite appeals, his widow was denied any compassionate grant from the Government. Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker wrote of Kirk's death: "This is a great loss to Botany, for indeed except the late Baron von Mueller there was no other cultivator of Botany in the Southern Hemisphere who could compare with him and I have been looking for years for the Forest Flora of New Zealand by him as to a work of very great scientific importance".

Thomas Kirk worked in botany. He was employed by Victoria University of Wellington, Lincoln University, Australian National University and Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira. He belonged to Auckland Institute and Museum and Royal Society Te Apārangi.

Thomas Kirk is recorded with the occupation scientific collector. Recorded as botanist, horticulturist, writer, botanical collector and scientific collector.