Thomas Brydone (14 April 1837 – 17 June 1904) was a New Zealand land-company manager, farm manager and freezing-industry developer. Brydone was born in

West Linton West Linton ( gd, Liontan Ruairidh) is a village and civil parish in southern Scotland, on the A702. It was formerly in the county of Peeblesshire, but since local government re-organisation in the mid-1990s it is now part of Scottish Borders. M ...

Peeblesshire Peeblesshire ( gd, Siorrachd nam Pùballan), the County of Peebles or Tweeddale is a historic county of Scotland. Its county town is Peebles, and it borders Midlothian to the north, Selkirkshire to the east, Dumfriesshire to the south, and Lan ...

, Scotland in 1837. He grew up in

Blair Atholl Blair Atholl (from the Scottish Gaelic: ''Blàr Athall'', originally ''Blàr Ath Fhodla'') is a village in Perthshire, Scotland, built about the confluence of the Rivers Tilt and Garry in one of the few areas of flat land in the midst of the Gr ...

and received his education at

Perth Academy Perth Academy is a state comprehensive secondary school in Perth, Scotland. It was founded in 1696. The institution is a non-denominational one. The school occupies ground on the side of a hill in the Viewlands area of Perth, and is within the Pe ...

. As a land stewart, he first worked for the

Earl of Buchan The Mormaer () or Earl of Buchan () was originally the provincial ruler of the medieval province of Buchan. Buchan was the first Mormaerdom in the High Medieval Kingdom of the Scots to pass into the hands of a non-Scottish family in the male li ...

and then the

Duke of Hamilton Duke of Hamilton is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, created in April 1643. It is the senior dukedom in that peerage (except for the Dukedom of Rothesay held by the Sovereign's eldest son), and as such its holder is the premier peer of Sco ...

. After moving to England, he worked for the West of England Land Improvement Company and then for Lord Falmouth. From 1861, he was back in Scotland, initially with the Earl of Buchan and then as a part-owner of the Young's Paraffin Oil Company in 1866 and 1867; the business failed when cheaper paraffin oil became available from the United States. The New Zealand and Australian Land Company was formed in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

in March 1866 and in the following year, Brydone became the organisation's superintendent for property located in New Zealand. He arrived in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

, New Zealand, in 1868 to take up his role. Brydone was successful in his job, helped by his extensive land management experience in Scotland. In 1877, the company amalgamated with the Canterbury and Otago Association, with Brydone in charge of its New Zealand operations. Upon his suggestion, the company unprofitable operation in Edendale was changed to dairying and when Brydone applied lime to the sour soil, he set an example that was soon copied by other farmers for improved grass growth.

William Soltau Davidson William Soltau Davidson (15 June 1846 – 17 July 1924) was the New Zealand pioneer of refrigerated shipping. Early life Son of Frances Pillans and bank manager David Davidson, William Davidson was born in Montreal, Canada. He attended the Edi ...

, the company's general manager in Glasgow, decided to experiment with frozen meat exports and it was left to Brydone to organise the logistics in New Zealand. It was a very capital-intensive and high-risk undertaking. The technology had been developed in Australia, but Davidson and Brydone improved the efficacy of it, creating the meat export industry between New Zealand and Britain in the 1880s. A slaughterhouse was built in

Totara ''Podocarpus totara'' (; from the Maori-language ; the spelling "totara" is also common in English) is a species of podocarp tree endemic to New Zealand. It grows throughout the North Island and northeastern South Island in lowland, montane and ...

south of

Oamaru Oamaru (; mi, Te Oha-a-Maru) is the largest town in North Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand, it is the main town in the Waitaki District. It is south of Timaru and north of Dunedin on the Pacific coast; State Highway 1 and the railway ...

. The meat was shipped to

Port Chalmers Port Chalmers is a town serving as the main port of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. Port Chalmers lies ten kilometres inside Otago Harbour, some 15 kilometres northeast of Dunedin's city centre. History Early Māori settlement The origi ...

by rail and loaded onto the ''Dunedin'', with the first shipment leaving Port Chalmers on 15 February 1882. The success of this venture created New Zealand's early lead in the industry. In 1892, Brydone gave a paper at the Australasian Stock Conference in Sydney, describing the immense problems that had to be overcome in the first decade of the frozen meat trade. Brydone was involved in several companies and ran his own farm. He left for London in April 1904 to seek some medical treatment. He died in London on 17 June 1904. There is a memorial for Brydone at Totara and a commemorative plaque at the Edendale Dairy Factory. The settlement of Brydone, Southland bears his name.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brydone, Thomas 1837 births 1904 deaths Scottish emigrants to New Zealand Businesspeople from Dunedin New Zealand farmers