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Tom Richmond - Eulogy
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Details Eulogy for TOM RICHMOND OAM, JP, BA, DT
I should mention from the outset that it was Tom’s intention to write his own eulogy. Unfortunately, he was taken away from us a little too early and he did not have the opportunity to draft it exactly how he wanted. But in many ways, he actually did. There is so much written material he left behind that he made it reasonably easy for me to pull together this information. Where possible, I have used Tom’s own words to describe his life as, the wonderful wordsmith he was, he always said it best.
Tom had such a full and active life there are actually four detailed sections to his story. I have tried to combine three of them and the fourth, regarding Tom’s contribution to cricket, I have left to Ross Turner who will follow me.
LIFE-LONG EDUCATOR
OUR GREATEST LOCAL HISTORIAN
EFFECTIVE GOVERNMENT AGITATOR & COMMUNITY ADVOCATE
EXCEPTIONAL YOUTH CRICKET COACH
TOM RICHMOND – LIFE-LONG EDUCATOR
Tom Richmond was born during the War in a private hospital at Hornsby on the 4th of July 1941. He was eighty when he passed away on 14th September 2021.
Tom was the son of Bob and May Richmond and raised in the family home at 21 Royston Parade, Asquith. His mother was a theatre nurse at Mater Hospital, in Crows Nest. His father was a hairdresser by trade, although he also worked delivering bread and, after serving in the Navy during the War, he worked on cruise ships.
Tom spent his own school years (1948 – 1957) at Barker College where he excelled as one of the youngest students in his year. In his final year he was selected for the Barker’s first IV cricket team as a fast bowler.
When he left school at 16, Tom attended Wagga Wagga Teacher’s College where he boarded for two years. There he edited the student newspaper and took part in drama productions. He also developed a relationship with fellow student, Rhondda Watts, who became his girlfriend for several years, until distant teaching postings forced their relationship to end.
At Teacher’s College his love for education was kindled. He graduated at the very young age of eighteen and took up his first appointment as a teacher in a school where he was younger than the school captain, a fact he carefully kept concealed!
Tom Richmond started teaching in 1960, at the small town of Woodenbong, close to the Queensland border. He taught junior secondary classes at Woodenbong Central High School for two years. In 1962, he transferred to another Northern NSW town and taught at Bonalbo Central High School. While at those schools, he represented Northern Border and Mallanganee in the Inter District Cricket Competition. He also played A Grade tennis.
In 1964, Tom was appointed to Normanhurst Boys’ High School, where he taught English and History for four years. While teaching at Normanhurst he completed his Arts degree through the University of New England in 1968. His degree included four years of English, four years of History and one of Psychology.
At Normanhurst Boys’ High School, he involved himself in student’s academic, sporting and welfare activities. He also served in the school cadet corps as a lieutenant. In 1968, he transferred and was promoted to Head English Teacher at Riverstone High School which, at 27, made him one of the youngest teachers to hold that position.
When Galston High School opened in 1974, Tom Richmond became Head Teacher for both English and History. During his time at Galston he took on the daunting project of restoring the dilapidated sandstone building (built c. 1866) that was located on the school grounds. It was named, Waddell Cottage, after its original inhabitants, and today, thanks to Tom’s innovation, it stands impressively fully restored near the front of the school gates.
While teaching at Galston he became known as a leader in the field of local history education and took part in curriculum development related to teaching local history. He spoke at both NSW and Australian History Teachers’ conferences and was a member of several committees, including the ABC Advisory Committee.
In 1976 he completed his first published book, Felons and Fair Ones, which was a school text.
In 1981, Tom accepted a promotion at Windsor High School as Deputy Principal. Then in 1984, he transferred to Ku-ring-gai High School as Deputy Principal, before being promoted to Principal at Evans High School, in Blacktown, from 1987. There he achieved success with the promotion of Creative Arts and other innovative approaches to student welfare.
Tom Richmond returned to Ku-ring-gai High School (KHS) as the Principal in 1990, when the school was struggling with seriously low enrollment. It has been said, he saved KHS from closure when he oversaw the school’s transition to a Creative Arts High School whilst changing in the school’s uniform and image. He was also responsible for the construction of the school’s hockey field. Under his innovative leadership the student enrollment quickly increased.
Faced with the onset of deafness Tom applied for medical retirement. This was granted in 1995, concluding 36 years of high school teaching. During his teaching career Tom positively influenced scores of students, often after other teachers had given up. Tom was most effective with students who were in the most challenging age group of 14 to 16.
A common theme when students, parents and fellow teachers talk about Tom’s teaching is that he was not conventional, and he would never be afraid to try something different. More often than not, and usually against the odds, his innovation would be successful.
It is not surprising that the nickname of Uncle Tom developed and stuck with him for the rest of his life.
Tom always wanted to be known as an educator first and foremost. In the days when obtaining a promotion was a result of an intense examination, on-the-job, by inspectors, Tom obtained every promotion level on the first attempt and in the minimum number of years.
One of the things I really loved about Tom was his openness when expressing his opinion passionately, a position he would not form without deep thought and the ability to back it up with strong and water-tight arguments. Tom had some very strong opinions on education and many of these are controversial. For example, his view on private school education was very clear, he would abolish it! Amongst his papers I have found a piece that he put together arguing for the abolishment of the private school system and it was very convincing, especially from someone who had successfully come through the private school system himself.
Tom was recently asked if he had any regrets at never having been married. He replied, “I had occasionally thought about marriage, but never really met a woman with whom I wanted to spend the rest of my life”. It was then commented that he would have made a good father. To which Tom replied, “Children, I have had thousands of them! A dedicated teacher takes on board the problems of those who are his pupils. The thrills of their success and worries about their failures. He does what he can to influence them”.
He said, “If I were to divide my life into major sectional interests, I would place education at the top. Further down the ladder, I would certainly include local history research. In essence however, my work in this area has been educational, because my major aim has been to heighten the awareness of the community with regard to our magnificent historical heritage. My retirement years have been filled with writing books and columns, speaking and lecturing. It has almost been like a second career, and almost as enjoyable as my first career was”.
It is worth noting at this point, Tom was a high school teacher for 36 years, and retired to become a local history expert for the next 25 years.
TOM RICHMOND – EFFECTIVE GOVERNMENT AGITATOR & COMMUNITY ADVOCATE
Tom Richmond has been described as greatly feared and respected by all local politicians and senior staff at all levels of government. He was certainly well respected, and I have no doubt many feared him as several that got him off-side soon became ex-politicians.
He attended Barker with Mayor Philip Ruddock and I know both our local State MP, Matt Kean and our local Federal MP, Julian Leeser, would turn to Tom for advice whenever an issue arose on the river.
He was incredibly effective at bringing attention to any local issue he decided to focus on, and when you spoke to Tom about a community issue you always knew he had the community’s best interest at heart.
Tom was also a prolific writer to the Editors of the local newspapers. His activity significantly increased during the lead up to an election to a point he was often busier than most of the candidates.
A few years ago, when consultants for Council were in the process of formulating a masterplan for Brooklyn, they were going over feedback and submissions from river residents about the community’s vision for a future Brooklyn. Early on in the process Tom had badly clashed with the consultants, but even they had to reluctantly admit that Tom’s submission was the best and showed a clear vision for Brooklyn with an achievable pathway. They picked up many of his ideas, a number of which Council are today looking at ways to implement.
From 1861, Tom Richmond’s great grandfather, George Seymour, began farming in the area that would later be named Brooklyn. Where Seymour’s dairy farm was located would later be the site of the Shire’s most recently constructed sports field. It was delivered after much agitation from Tom to turn the wasteland area into something useful, as was previously committed to by Sydney Water when they built the sewage treatment plant nearby. Today the large sports field is known as, the “Old Dairy” and it was officially opened for Hornsby Shire Council by Tom himself, on 16th January 2016, when he bowled the first ball in the inaugural cricket match played there.
TOM RICHMOND – OUR GREATEST LOCAL HISTORIAN
Although Tom grew up in Asquith, he had deep family connections on the Hawkesbury River.
Three generations of Tom’s family span 160 years of history in the Brooklyn area, from when his great grandfather, George Seymour, became the first permanent settler on the southern side of the river.
Tom was a single man, with a younger sister Judy and an older brother Peter. He was carer to his elderly father until the latter’s death in 2010 at the age of almost 101. His mother had died in 1981.
When his grandmother died in 1962, she left her house and property in Brooklyn to Tom and his brother Peter. Tom purchased his brother’s share, demolished the old house, as its condition had deteriorated, and built his new house in 1981. Tom lived his final 40 years at Brooklyn, on the property where his mother was born, which was land that was acquired by his grandparents in 1906.
Tom Richmond has always been interested in the history of our local area. He said, this was something that came from his maternal grandmother, Anne Johnson, who was born in Brooklyn in 1871 and lived there until her death in 1962. Tom spent many happy days on holiday with his grandmother and fell in love with Brooklyn in the process.
His work with the Waddell Cottage Project, restoring the 1866 built building while teaching at Galston High School, spread into the researching of the history of the Dural area and a resource bank was constructed at the school, following extensive research in the State Archives. He was a hero to many locals and local families whose histories he helped reconstruct and record in detail.
Tom joined the Hornsby Shire Historical Society in the 1970s and took part in an important project of the Society, when he contributed two chapters to a ground-breaking local history book, Pioneers of Hornsby Shire (published in 1978).
When he retired from teaching Tom continued to pursue his interest in local history and he compered the Council’s popular Heritage Cruises on the Hawkesbury for ten years. He also had five books published:
• Brooklyn Federation Village (2002)
• Love Among the Prawns (2003)
• Brooklyn Underground (2003)
• Bar Island and Lower Hawkesbury (2005)
• 1906 The Birth of Hornsby Shire (2007)
More recently Tom Richmond co-edited and heavily contributed to Our Bushland Shire, the story of Hornsby Shire. This book is a short history of every suburb in the Hornsby Shire and was published earlier this year.
From 2006, and for nearly 14 years, Tom Richmond wrote a weekly historical column for the Hornsby Advocate newspaper. Editors of the paper, some more reluctantly than others, accepted Tom’s history contribution was one of the most popular sections of their newspaper.
In 2018, Tom created his own regular hard copy newsletter, which he named, The Brooklyn Bugle. It presented the history of the Brooklyn area in a short readable format that was distributed throughout Brooklyn, free of charge, for anyone interested. It also proved to be very popular.
In addition to his published work, Tom Richmond compiled and recorded various other written projects on local history including on Brooklyn Public School, the history of policing in Brooklyn, Brooklyn Cemetery and local Aboriginal history for which he had a profound interest.
For over 15 years, Tom lectured Chase Alive volunteers annually prior to the start of Muogamarra Sanctuary visitor season. The Nature Reserve has so much history, from important indigenous sites and convict roads, to early farms and guest houses. Tom was across it all. When he was unable to continue his presentations, he created a detailed booklet on Muogamarra’s heritage for the volunteers.
Tom Richmond’s motto was, when it came to history, particularly his own work, “History is owned by all and needs to be shared”. He was always happy for his own work to be used by others as well as constantly encouraging others to take on their own local history project, with his considerable support behind the scenes. Tom actively contributed to many other local history publications including;
• A Taste of Ginger (2002) and A Bit More Ginger (2006)
• Man Made the City but God Made the Bush, a detailed history of Berowra (2016)
• A History of Asquith NSW (2021)
After his retirement from high school teaching in 1995, Tom Richmond gave hundreds of talks on local history to various community groups. His audience ranged from school children to Probus clubs and residents at retirement villages. Just like his written work, during these presentations he demonstrated his unique ability to turn important historical facts and events into fascinating yarns that coerced his entire audience to become completely absorbed. At his conclusion they were always left wanting more. This is something he told me, was the key when talking or writing about or teaching history. Always leave them wanting more – which is exactly what Tom Richmond did with his life with everyone that knew him – he left us wanting a bit more of Tom Richmond.
Tom Richmond’s real skill, which was developed over many years, which was not talking to a group, but rather conversing one on one. He was an absolute master at saying exactly the right things, in his own special way, and tailored to each individual. He had a particular skill with the youth.
So many of us learnt so much from Tom Richmond. He was without a doubt our most experienced and knowledgeable local historian, particularly regarding Brooklyn and other places along the Hawkesbury River. He was also very knowledgeable about Asquith, where he grew up, and the rural area of Hornsby Shire, where he taught for so many years.
A few things people may not know about Tom Richmond are that he loved the theatre, opera and country western music. He wrote poetry and lyrics. Tom very successfully coached cricket for 50 consecutive years from school teams, club level and junior representative teams. And he was increasingly proud of his family, particularly the achievements of his nieces and nephews.
Tom Richmond OAM, JP, MA, DT, was formally and deservedly recognized in many ways for his considerable contributions to education, his community, local cricket and local history. Rather than go through that long list there are details in the information you have today about Tom.
After contributing so much, for so long, to so many, he will be sorely missed, but never forgotten. Rest in peace my friend and mentor, Tom Richmond.
His awards include but are not limited to;
• Awarded Australian Sport Medal for services to cricket through administration and coaching (2000)
• Winner of Hornsby Shire Heritage Award (2001)
•
Order of Australia Medal for services to youth through sport and education (2002)
• Awarded NSW Premier’s Community Service Award (2002)
• Awarded Centenary Medal for services to the community through Local History (2003)
• Awarded the NSW Seniors’ Award
• Awarded the Australian Volunteers’ Award
• Life Membership for Brooklyn Ratepayers Association
• The State Cricket Coaches’ Trophy awarded in his honour
• Life Membership Hornsby Ku-ring-gai & Hills District Cricket Association (1981). Since 1984 the trophy for the leading Junior Representative cricketer for the HK&HDCA is named the “Tom Richmond Trophy”, in Tom’s Honour
• Life Membership Northern District Cricket Club (2012)
• Life Membership Hornsby Ku-ring-gai & Hills District Cricket Coaches Association (2014)
• He was also appointed Justice of the Peace in 1985 and was the long-time Patron of the Hornsby Shire Historical Society
CreatorNathan TilburyKeywordsTom RichmondBrooklyn
Details Eulogy for TOM RICHMOND OAM, JP, BA, DTI should mention from the outset that it was Tom’s intention to write his own eulogy. Unfortunately, he was taken away from us a little too early and he did not have the opportunity to draft it exactly how he wanted. But in many ways, he actually did. There is so much written material he left behind that he made it reasonably easy for me to pull together this information. Where possible, I have used Tom’s own words to describe his life as, the wonderful wordsmith he was, he always said it best.
Tom had such a full and active life there are actually four detailed sections to his story. I have tried to combine three of them and the fourth, regarding Tom’s contribution to cricket, I have left to Ross Turner who will follow me.
LIFE-LONG EDUCATOR
OUR GREATEST LOCAL HISTORIAN
EFFECTIVE GOVERNMENT AGITATOR & COMMUNITY ADVOCATE
EXCEPTIONAL YOUTH CRICKET COACH
TOM RICHMOND – LIFE-LONG EDUCATOR
Tom Richmond was born during the War in a private hospital at Hornsby on the 4th of July 1941. He was eighty when he passed away on 14th September 2021.
Tom was the son of Bob and May Richmond and raised in the family home at 21 Royston Parade, Asquith. His mother was a theatre nurse at Mater Hospital, in Crows Nest. His father was a hairdresser by trade, although he also worked delivering bread and, after serving in the Navy during the War, he worked on cruise ships.
Tom spent his own school years (1948 – 1957) at Barker College where he excelled as one of the youngest students in his year. In his final year he was selected for the Barker’s first IV cricket team as a fast bowler.
When he left school at 16, Tom attended Wagga Wagga Teacher’s College where he boarded for two years. There he edited the student newspaper and took part in drama productions. He also developed a relationship with fellow student, Rhondda Watts, who became his girlfriend for several years, until distant teaching postings forced their relationship to end.
At Teacher’s College his love for education was kindled. He graduated at the very young age of eighteen and took up his first appointment as a teacher in a school where he was younger than the school captain, a fact he carefully kept concealed!
Tom Richmond started teaching in 1960, at the small town of Woodenbong, close to the Queensland border. He taught junior secondary classes at Woodenbong Central High School for two years. In 1962, he transferred to another Northern NSW town and taught at Bonalbo Central High School. While at those schools, he represented Northern Border and Mallanganee in the Inter District Cricket Competition. He also played A Grade tennis.
In 1964, Tom was appointed to Normanhurst Boys’ High School, where he taught English and History for four years. While teaching at Normanhurst he completed his Arts degree through the University of New England in 1968. His degree included four years of English, four years of History and one of Psychology.
At Normanhurst Boys’ High School, he involved himself in student’s academic, sporting and welfare activities. He also served in the school cadet corps as a lieutenant. In 1968, he transferred and was promoted to Head English Teacher at Riverstone High School which, at 27, made him one of the youngest teachers to hold that position.
When Galston High School opened in 1974, Tom Richmond became Head Teacher for both English and History. During his time at Galston he took on the daunting project of restoring the dilapidated sandstone building (built c. 1866) that was located on the school grounds. It was named, Waddell Cottage, after its original inhabitants, and today, thanks to Tom’s innovation, it stands impressively fully restored near the front of the school gates.
While teaching at Galston he became known as a leader in the field of local history education and took part in curriculum development related to teaching local history. He spoke at both NSW and Australian History Teachers’ conferences and was a member of several committees, including the ABC Advisory Committee.
In 1976 he completed his first published book, Felons and Fair Ones, which was a school text.
In 1981, Tom accepted a promotion at Windsor High School as Deputy Principal. Then in 1984, he transferred to Ku-ring-gai High School as Deputy Principal, before being promoted to Principal at Evans High School, in Blacktown, from 1987. There he achieved success with the promotion of Creative Arts and other innovative approaches to student welfare.
Tom Richmond returned to Ku-ring-gai High School (KHS) as the Principal in 1990, when the school was struggling with seriously low enrollment. It has been said, he saved KHS from closure when he oversaw the school’s transition to a Creative Arts High School whilst changing in the school’s uniform and image. He was also responsible for the construction of the school’s hockey field. Under his innovative leadership the student enrollment quickly increased.
Faced with the onset of deafness Tom applied for medical retirement. This was granted in 1995, concluding 36 years of high school teaching. During his teaching career Tom positively influenced scores of students, often after other teachers had given up. Tom was most effective with students who were in the most challenging age group of 14 to 16.
A common theme when students, parents and fellow teachers talk about Tom’s teaching is that he was not conventional, and he would never be afraid to try something different. More often than not, and usually against the odds, his innovation would be successful.
It is not surprising that the nickname of Uncle Tom developed and stuck with him for the rest of his life.
Tom always wanted to be known as an educator first and foremost. In the days when obtaining a promotion was a result of an intense examination, on-the-job, by inspectors, Tom obtained every promotion level on the first attempt and in the minimum number of years.
One of the things I really loved about Tom was his openness when expressing his opinion passionately, a position he would not form without deep thought and the ability to back it up with strong and water-tight arguments. Tom had some very strong opinions on education and many of these are controversial. For example, his view on private school education was very clear, he would abolish it! Amongst his papers I have found a piece that he put together arguing for the abolishment of the private school system and it was very convincing, especially from someone who had successfully come through the private school system himself.
Tom was recently asked if he had any regrets at never having been married. He replied, “I had occasionally thought about marriage, but never really met a woman with whom I wanted to spend the rest of my life”. It was then commented that he would have made a good father. To which Tom replied, “Children, I have had thousands of them! A dedicated teacher takes on board the problems of those who are his pupils. The thrills of their success and worries about their failures. He does what he can to influence them”.
He said, “If I were to divide my life into major sectional interests, I would place education at the top. Further down the ladder, I would certainly include local history research. In essence however, my work in this area has been educational, because my major aim has been to heighten the awareness of the community with regard to our magnificent historical heritage. My retirement years have been filled with writing books and columns, speaking and lecturing. It has almost been like a second career, and almost as enjoyable as my first career was”.
It is worth noting at this point, Tom was a high school teacher for 36 years, and retired to become a local history expert for the next 25 years.
TOM RICHMOND – EFFECTIVE GOVERNMENT AGITATOR & COMMUNITY ADVOCATE
Tom Richmond has been described as greatly feared and respected by all local politicians and senior staff at all levels of government. He was certainly well respected, and I have no doubt many feared him as several that got him off-side soon became ex-politicians.
He attended Barker with Mayor Philip Ruddock and I know both our local State MP, Matt Kean and our local Federal MP, Julian Leeser, would turn to Tom for advice whenever an issue arose on the river.
He was incredibly effective at bringing attention to any local issue he decided to focus on, and when you spoke to Tom about a community issue you always knew he had the community’s best interest at heart.
Tom was also a prolific writer to the Editors of the local newspapers. His activity significantly increased during the lead up to an election to a point he was often busier than most of the candidates.
A few years ago, when consultants for Council were in the process of formulating a masterplan for Brooklyn, they were going over feedback and submissions from river residents about the community’s vision for a future Brooklyn. Early on in the process Tom had badly clashed with the consultants, but even they had to reluctantly admit that Tom’s submission was the best and showed a clear vision for Brooklyn with an achievable pathway. They picked up many of his ideas, a number of which Council are today looking at ways to implement.
From 1861, Tom Richmond’s great grandfather, George Seymour, began farming in the area that would later be named Brooklyn. Where Seymour’s dairy farm was located would later be the site of the Shire’s most recently constructed sports field. It was delivered after much agitation from Tom to turn the wasteland area into something useful, as was previously committed to by Sydney Water when they built the sewage treatment plant nearby. Today the large sports field is known as, the “Old Dairy” and it was officially opened for Hornsby Shire Council by Tom himself, on 16th January 2016, when he bowled the first ball in the inaugural cricket match played there.
TOM RICHMOND – OUR GREATEST LOCAL HISTORIAN
Although Tom grew up in Asquith, he had deep family connections on the Hawkesbury River.
Three generations of Tom’s family span 160 years of history in the Brooklyn area, from when his great grandfather, George Seymour, became the first permanent settler on the southern side of the river.
Tom was a single man, with a younger sister Judy and an older brother Peter. He was carer to his elderly father until the latter’s death in 2010 at the age of almost 101. His mother had died in 1981.
When his grandmother died in 1962, she left her house and property in Brooklyn to Tom and his brother Peter. Tom purchased his brother’s share, demolished the old house, as its condition had deteriorated, and built his new house in 1981. Tom lived his final 40 years at Brooklyn, on the property where his mother was born, which was land that was acquired by his grandparents in 1906.
Tom Richmond has always been interested in the history of our local area. He said, this was something that came from his maternal grandmother, Anne Johnson, who was born in Brooklyn in 1871 and lived there until her death in 1962. Tom spent many happy days on holiday with his grandmother and fell in love with Brooklyn in the process.
His work with the Waddell Cottage Project, restoring the 1866 built building while teaching at Galston High School, spread into the researching of the history of the Dural area and a resource bank was constructed at the school, following extensive research in the State Archives. He was a hero to many locals and local families whose histories he helped reconstruct and record in detail.
Tom joined the Hornsby Shire Historical Society in the 1970s and took part in an important project of the Society, when he contributed two chapters to a ground-breaking local history book, Pioneers of Hornsby Shire (published in 1978).
When he retired from teaching Tom continued to pursue his interest in local history and he compered the Council’s popular Heritage Cruises on the Hawkesbury for ten years. He also had five books published:
• Brooklyn Federation Village (2002)
• Love Among the Prawns (2003)
• Brooklyn Underground (2003)
• Bar Island and Lower Hawkesbury (2005)
• 1906 The Birth of Hornsby Shire (2007)
More recently Tom Richmond co-edited and heavily contributed to Our Bushland Shire, the story of Hornsby Shire. This book is a short history of every suburb in the Hornsby Shire and was published earlier this year.
From 2006, and for nearly 14 years, Tom Richmond wrote a weekly historical column for the Hornsby Advocate newspaper. Editors of the paper, some more reluctantly than others, accepted Tom’s history contribution was one of the most popular sections of their newspaper.
In 2018, Tom created his own regular hard copy newsletter, which he named, The Brooklyn Bugle. It presented the history of the Brooklyn area in a short readable format that was distributed throughout Brooklyn, free of charge, for anyone interested. It also proved to be very popular.
In addition to his published work, Tom Richmond compiled and recorded various other written projects on local history including on Brooklyn Public School, the history of policing in Brooklyn, Brooklyn Cemetery and local Aboriginal history for which he had a profound interest.
For over 15 years, Tom lectured Chase Alive volunteers annually prior to the start of Muogamarra Sanctuary visitor season. The Nature Reserve has so much history, from important indigenous sites and convict roads, to early farms and guest houses. Tom was across it all. When he was unable to continue his presentations, he created a detailed booklet on Muogamarra’s heritage for the volunteers.
Tom Richmond’s motto was, when it came to history, particularly his own work, “History is owned by all and needs to be shared”. He was always happy for his own work to be used by others as well as constantly encouraging others to take on their own local history project, with his considerable support behind the scenes. Tom actively contributed to many other local history publications including;
• A Taste of Ginger (2002) and A Bit More Ginger (2006)
• Man Made the City but God Made the Bush, a detailed history of Berowra (2016)
• A History of Asquith NSW (2021)
After his retirement from high school teaching in 1995, Tom Richmond gave hundreds of talks on local history to various community groups. His audience ranged from school children to Probus clubs and residents at retirement villages. Just like his written work, during these presentations he demonstrated his unique ability to turn important historical facts and events into fascinating yarns that coerced his entire audience to become completely absorbed. At his conclusion they were always left wanting more. This is something he told me, was the key when talking or writing about or teaching history. Always leave them wanting more – which is exactly what Tom Richmond did with his life with everyone that knew him – he left us wanting a bit more of Tom Richmond.
Tom Richmond’s real skill, which was developed over many years, which was not talking to a group, but rather conversing one on one. He was an absolute master at saying exactly the right things, in his own special way, and tailored to each individual. He had a particular skill with the youth.
So many of us learnt so much from Tom Richmond. He was without a doubt our most experienced and knowledgeable local historian, particularly regarding Brooklyn and other places along the Hawkesbury River. He was also very knowledgeable about Asquith, where he grew up, and the rural area of Hornsby Shire, where he taught for so many years.
A few things people may not know about Tom Richmond are that he loved the theatre, opera and country western music. He wrote poetry and lyrics. Tom very successfully coached cricket for 50 consecutive years from school teams, club level and junior representative teams. And he was increasingly proud of his family, particularly the achievements of his nieces and nephews.
Tom Richmond OAM, JP, MA, DT, was formally and deservedly recognized in many ways for his considerable contributions to education, his community, local cricket and local history. Rather than go through that long list there are details in the information you have today about Tom.
After contributing so much, for so long, to so many, he will be sorely missed, but never forgotten. Rest in peace my friend and mentor, Tom Richmond.
His awards include but are not limited to;
• Awarded Australian Sport Medal for services to cricket through administration and coaching (2000)
• Winner of Hornsby Shire Heritage Award (2001)
•
Order of Australia Medal for services to youth through sport and education (2002)
• Awarded NSW Premier’s Community Service Award (2002)
• Awarded Centenary Medal for services to the community through Local History (2003)
• Awarded the NSW Seniors’ Award
• Awarded the Australian Volunteers’ Award
• Life Membership for Brooklyn Ratepayers Association
• The State Cricket Coaches’ Trophy awarded in his honour
• Life Membership Hornsby Ku-ring-gai & Hills District Cricket Association (1981). Since 1984 the trophy for the leading Junior Representative cricketer for the HK&HDCA is named the “Tom Richmond Trophy”, in Tom’s Honour
• Life Membership Northern District Cricket Club (2012)
• Life Membership Hornsby Ku-ring-gai & Hills District Cricket Coaches Association (2014)
• He was also appointed Justice of the Peace in 1985 and was the long-time Patron of the Hornsby Shire Historical Society
CreatorNathan TilburyKeywordsTom RichmondBrooklynClick on the image to add
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