Thomas Williams (manufacturer)
Thomas Albert Williams was born on 2 February 1846. The date of his death is not known. He was an iron founder, a businessman, and a local politician in New Zealand’s South Island, serving on Christchurch City Council and later Gore Borough Council.
His father was John Williams, a smith and iron founder in London. Thomas started his own engineering business in Christchurch in 1864, when he was 18. By 1871 he employed about 18 men. His workshop stood at the corner of Oxford Terrace and Montreal Street, and he later bought land on Tuam Street to expand. He made flax machinery and kitchen ranges, selling about 150 in two years. His foundry could cast items up to 16 cwt (730 kg). He supplied the New Zealand Railways with a steam crane for £600—the first of its kind made in New Zealand. In 1874 he supplied the engine for a steam punt on Lake Ellesmere.
In September 1874 Williams went bankrupt, and auctioneer Charles Clark sold his possessions. Because of rent debts, some remaining items, including poultry, were auctioned in December 1876 by Herbert Alport.
Williams was elected to the Christchurch City Council in a by-election on 16 October 1872. When the term ended, he ran again for three seats but finished seventh and was not re-elected, serving only one term.
He was a poultry and pigeon enthusiast, judging the first Christchurch poultry show in August 1868 and winning a prize in 1869. By the mid-1870s work duties left little time for this hobby. He married Mary Hopwood on 24 March 1870 at the Church of St Michael and All Angels, with Henry Jacobs officiating. They had one son and one daughter. Their son, Henry Williams, continued the poultry interest and invented the Kapai incubator.
In September 1887 Williams was elected to the Gore Borough Council.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 11:28 (CET).