Royal Commonwealth Society : A village group, Trashibiola

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;'>A view showing a group of villagers seated in a paved courtyard in front of a stonewalled house (the principal house in the village). The village is near the town of Paphos. Thomson states that the purpose of the gathering was twofold: to welcome strangers to the village and to discuss a point of law concerning a stray herd of goats.</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%2F12'>here</a></p>