Francis W. ThringPrint Page

The memorial over the gravesite commemorates Francis W. Thring , who was the Third Officer of John McDouall Stuart`s expedition in 1860 to 1863. The memorial was erected by the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, [ S. A. Branch ] and friends.

Thring was a member of John McDouall Stuart's fifth and sixth expeditions between 1860 and 1862 and the John McKinlay Expedition in the Northern Territory in 1865 and 1866. 

Born in England in 1837, his father was a freehold farmer in Wiltshire and looking for better prospects the family emigrated to South Australia in 1849. After a brief period in Adelaide the family moved to Encounter Bay. Francis was employed in carting telegraph poles from the tiers near Port Victor (Victor Harbor) to Mount Barker and Adelaide for W. Thompson. It was probably here that he gained bushman skills and became an experienced horseman.

Thring was the third officer on Stuart's expedition of 1861 and 1862 and he had charge of the horses. On the sixth expedition Stuart named a water source in central Australia for Thring, Thring's Pond, now Thring Swamp. Stuart spoke very highly of Thring's work on the expedition. In 1865 he was one of John McKinlay's party, which was to explore between the Adelaide and Liverpool Rivers to locate a good site for the main settlement.

On his return to South Australia Thring managed properties for Messrs Browne including Buckland Park at Two Wells and subsequently for John Howard Angas. He was also employed on an ostrich farm near Port Augusta before returning to Adelaide. Here he worked as a business and commercial agent dealing in stock and land sales. He died in Parkside in July 1908.

In November 1916, the town Thrington between Wallaroo and Port Wakefield in the Yorke Peninsula, was named after him.

Mr. F. Herring, of West terrace, has executed in Angaston marble two handsome shaft monuments, 7ft. 6 in. high, decorated with chaste work which have been erected at the West Terrace Cemetery and the other at Blinman— over the graves respectively of F. W. Thring and W. D. Kekwick, two of the men who accompanied Stuart across the continent. The inscription on the grave at West terrace reads " Francis. W. Thring; explorer; born at Netherhampton, England, 1st May, 1837; died.at Parkside 17th July, 1908. Erected by the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (South Australian branch), and friends in admiration of his pluck, endurance, and loyalty to John McDouall Stuart as third officer, from 1860 to 1863, when the continent was crossed and the British flag was raised on the shores of the Indian Ocean, 25th July, 1862."

The lettering on the monument at Blinman is as follows:— "William Darton Kekwick, explorer; born at London 3rd December, 1822; died at Blinman 16th October 1872. Erected by the Royal Geographical Society, of Australasia (South Australian, branch); and his friends, in admiration of his pluck, endurance, and loyalty to John McDouall Stuart as second- in-command from 1859 to 1863, when the British flag was placed in  the centre of Australia, 22nd April, 1860, and on the shores of the Indian Ocean 25th July, 1862."
Register (Adelaide), 15 April 1909.

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