Royal Commonwealth Society : Women at a well, Levka [i.e. Lefka]

Thomson, John (1837-1921)

Royal Commonwealth Society

<p style='text-align: justify;'>John Thomson (1837-1921) was born and educated in Edinburgh, where he studied chemistry and took up photography. He moved to the Far East in 1862, settling first in Penang and then in Singapore and Hong Kong. Thomson made a number of important photographic tours, visiting Ceylon [Sri Lanka], India, Thailand, Vietnam and China before returning to Britain. In 1878, he travelled to Cyprus and took many photographs, publishing his work in ‘Through Cyprus with the camera’. In 1886 the Royal Geographic Society appointed him photographic tutor to explorers.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'> Raw-wells abound all over the great plain. They are to be met with, not only within the courtyards of the houses in the towns and villages, but even in out-of-the-way localities, where they serve to supply the cattle, and where the shepherd may be seen at morning and evening, watering his flocks… It is astonishing to see how deftly the drawing of water is managed even by children, although the women among Cypriote peasantry form the recognized drawers of water.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>See Janus record <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0115%2FCobham%2FY3018B%2F6'>here</a></p>