Major-General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

Sir Thomas Aiskew Larcom, Bart, PC FRS (22 April 1801 – 15 June 1879)''Dictionary of National Biography''
/ref>''Dictionary of Ulster Biography''
/ref> was a leading official in the early Irish Ordnance Survey. He later became a poor law commissioner, census commissioner and finally executive head of the British administration in Ireland as

under-secretary Undersecretary (or under secretary) is a title for a person who works for and has a lower rank than a secretary (person in charge). It is used in the executive branch of government, with different meanings in different political systems, and is ...

to the

Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (), or more formally Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, was the title of the chief governor of Ireland from the Williamite Wars of 1690 until the Partition of Ireland in 1922. This spanned the Kingd ...

, a position the government of the day was eager for him to take. Born in Gosport, Hampshire, Larcom received his education at the Royal Military Academy and was commissioned in the Royal Engineers in 1820. He began his career with the Ordnance Survey of England in 1824 before being transferred to Ireland. With the rank of lieutenant he led the day-to-day operations of Survey headquarters by 1828 under Lt-Colonel Thomas Colby and established a meteorological observatory in Dublin. At the completion of the Survey's six-inch maps in 1846, Larcom joined the Irish Board of Works.J.A. Lawson (1886), 'A Century of Irish Government', ''Edinburgh Review'', no. 336 In this role he was involved in the establishment of the

Queen's University of Ireland The Queen's University of Ireland was established formally by Royal Charter on 3 September 1850, as the degree-awarding university of the ''Queen's Colleges'' of Belfast, Cork, and Galway that were established in 1845 "to afford a university ...

. The longest-serving under-secretary (1853–1868), Larcom had a distinguished career in his adopted country and acted with an impartiality that won him respect from all parties. In 1868 he was admitted to the

Irish Privy Council His or Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland, commonly called the Privy Council of Ireland, Irish Privy Council, or in earlier centuries the Irish Council, was the institution within the Dublin Castle administration which exercised formal executi ...

and created a baronet.

Arms

Bibliography

* Thomas Colby (1837), ''Ordnance Survey of the County of Londonderry'' (Dublin) *J.A. Lawson, "Manuscript life of Sir Thomas Larcom" (undated) *Montagu Burrows (1892), "Larcom, Thomas Aiskew", ''Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900'', vol. 32 *"A century of Irish Government", ''Edinburgh Review'', no. 336 (1879) *"Obituary memoir of Sir T. A. Larcom", ''Proceedings of the Royal Society'', no. 198 (1879) *

Footnotes

References

*Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). ''Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage'' (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Larcom, Thomas 1801 births 1879 deaths Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom Royal Engineers officers Ordnance Survey Surveying Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Under-Secretaries for Ireland Fellows of the Royal Society