Thomas Boutflower Bennett

Who is Thomas Boutflower Bennett?

Thomas Boutflower Bennett was an early colonist of South Australia, remembered as a schoolmaster at J. L. Young's Adelaide Educational Institution and at Saint Peter's College.

He married Elizabeth and with two children arrived at Holdfast Bay on the "Somersetshire" on 24 August 1839.

He started a distillery on the banks of the River Torrens at Klemzig, but was closed down by the Governor George Grey

An attempt at sheep farming at Lovely Valley was unsuccessful, so he got a job at Moonta as accountant in the Boord Brothers store, then joined the rush to the Victorian goldfields.

In June 1861 he joined the staff of J. L. Young's Adelaide Educational Institution, and for 10 years taught English and bookkeeping and assisting in the school's running, then around 1871 when the school transferred to Parkside, took a position with St. Peter's College, perhaps for its greater proximity to his Payneham Road, Stepney home. He retired from teaching late 1879 or early 1880. He sold the family house in August 1894, having moved to live with his son in Port Lincoln, where he died.