https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1628-4592
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ABSTRACT
Thomas Revel Johnson was a pioneering Australian sports journalist in the mid-19th century who also conducted a professional career as a surgeon. This article aims to examine Johnson’s achievements in Australian sports reporting as an emerging genre before it was taken seriously by the mainstream press. It also examines his place in a watershed libel case that cast him as a scapegoat and resulted in an unduly harsh two-year jail sentence. The article situates Johnson as part of a pre-Federation commercial media that attempted to establish a distinctly “Australian” voice, championing the underdog and working to undermine imported societal hierarchies.
Acknowledgements
I thank descendants of Thomas Revel Johnson in Australia and New Zealand who have generously shared documents, manuscripts, publications, websites and family knowledge of their ancestor.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 The Satirist and Sporting Chronicle, “Address,” 4 February 1843, 1; Mark Rolfe, “The Pleasures of Political Humour in Australian Democracy,” Journal of Australian Studies 34, no. 3 (2010): 368.
2 Please note that I refer to Bell’s Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer as Bell's Life after its first mention; for clarity, however, I refer to Bell’s Life in London and Sporting Chronicle in full.
3 Henry Mayer, The Press in Australia (Melbourne: Lansdowne Press, 1964), 10.
4 Bruce Haley, The Healthy Body and Victorian Culture (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978), 125.
5 Brian Stoddart, Saturday Afternoon Fever: Sport in the Australian Culture (North Ryde: Angus & Robertson, 1986), 34.
6 Stoddart, Saturday Afternoon Fever, 34.
7 Stoddart, Saturday Afternoon Fever, 34.
8 Cashman, Paradise of Sport (Sydney: Walla Walla Press, 2010), 131–44.
9 Cashman, Paradise of Sport, 131–32.
10 Cashman, Paradise of Sport, 131–32.
11 Cashman, Paradise of Sport, 132.
12 Cashman, Paradise of Sport, 132.
13 Denis Cryle, Disreputable Profession: Journalists and Journalism in Colonial Australia (Rockhampton: Central Queensland University Press, 1987).
14 Mayer, The Press in Australia.
15 R. B. Walker, The Newspaper Press in New South Wales, 1803–1920 (Sydney: Sydney University Press, 1976), 115, 230. However, Walker erroneously states that Johnson was “a somewhat disreputable solicitor” (115).
16 W. McDonald, B. Avieson, and K. Davies, Australian Colonial Narrative Journalism (Sydney: Macquarie University, 2015).
17 Neville Meaney, “‘In History’s Page’: Identity and Myth,” in Australia’s Empire, ed. Deryck Schreuder and Stuart Ward (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 364.
18 A sketchbook containing the portrait of Johnson, among other NSW identities, was sold at auction in Melbourne on 28 March 2019 to the National Library of Australia for $85,909.09 (Menzies, lot 65, Sketchbook 1850–57), https://www.menziesartbrands.com/items/sketchbook (accessed 19 October 2022).
19 At this time in Ireland, birth certificates were not registered by the state, and parish churches kept christening records, though many have been destroyed. Genealogical sites list Johnson's birth as 1817. See, for example, “Dr Thomas Revel Johnson, Free Settler ‘Sea Horse’ 1840,” Geni, accessed 19 October 2022, https://www.geni.com/people/Dr-Thomas-Revel-Johnson-MRCS-AKAThomas-Revel-Guest-II/6000000036610418328. His jail record also notes his birthdate as 1817.
20 “Dr Thomas Revel Johnson”.
21 Revel Guest and Angela V. John, Lady Charlotte: A Biography of the 19th Century (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1989), 130.
22 National Archives (UK), “Will of Thomas Revel Guest of Cardiff, Glamorganshire,” 1835.
23 Liam Kennedy and Martin W. Dowling, “Irish Prices and Wages in Ireland, 1700–1850,” Economic and Social History 24 (1997): 62–104.
24 National Archives (UK), “Will of Thomas Revel Guest”.
25 National Archives (UK), “Will of Thomas Revel Guest”. Thomas’s sister, Sarah, also received £2,000, with provision for her education and maintenance until age 24, when she could claim the capital.
26 National Archives (UK), “Will of Thomas Revel Guest”.
27 View the Royal College of Surgeons archives at http://www.rcseng.ac.uk. I received this information in personal correspondence with Geraldine O’Driscoll, Library & Surgical Information Services, The Royal College of Surgeons of England, 26 April 2012.
28 “Family Notices,” Sydney Morning Herald, 24 June 1842, 3.
29 Joseph Fowles, Sydney in 1848 (Sydney: J. Fowles, 1848), 29.
30 “Tuesday,” Sydney Morning Herald, 5 October 1842, 2.
31 “Advertising,” Australian, 20 February 1843, 3.
32 Paul Mitchell, “The Foundations of Australian Defamation Law,” Sydney Law Review 28 (2006): 493.
33 Mayer, The Press in Australia, 212–13.
34 “Cricket,” Satirist and Sporting Chronicle, 11 March 1843, 4.
35 “Cricket,” Satirist, 4 March 1843, 3; and 11 March 1843, 4.
36 “Rifle Shooting,” Satirist, 4 March 1843, 4.
37 “Address,” Satirist, 4 February 1843, 1.
38 Peter Coleman, Obscenity, Blasphemy, Sedition (Sydney: Duffy & Snellgrove, 2000 [1962]).
39 Rolfe, “The Pleasures of Political Humour,” 368.
40 Martha Rutledge, “Johnson, Robert Ebenezer (1812–1866),” Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 1972, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/johnson-robert-ebenezer-3862 (accessed 21 August 2023).
41 “Supreme Court,” Australasian Chronicle, 20 April 1843, 2. In 1851, however, Lang was found guilty of publishing a malicious libel and jailed for four months. See D. W. A. Baker, “Lang, John Dunmore (1799–1878),” Australian Dictionary of Biography (Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 1967).
42 Satirist, 18 March 1843, 1.
43 Satirist, 18 March 1843, 1.
44 Satirist, 4 February 1843, 1.
45 Kirsten McKenzie, Scandal in the Colonies: Sydney and Cape Town, 1820–1850 (Carlton, VIC: Melbourne University Press, 2004), 160.
46 Penny Russell, “Unsettling Settler Society,” in Australia’s History: Themes and Debates, ed. Martyn Lyons and Penny Russell (Sydney: UNSW Press, 2005), 36.
47 Satirist, 4 February 1843, 2.
48 “The Liberty of the Press!!!,” Satirist, 18 March 1843, 1.
49 “The Liberty of the Press!!!,” 1.
50 Rolfe, “The Pleasures of Political Humour,” 368.
51 “Supreme Court,” 2.
52 Mitchell, “The Foundations of Australian Defamation Law,” 493.
53 Mitchell, “The Foundations of Australian Defamation Law,” 491.
54 Mitchell, “The Foundations of Australian Defamation Law,” 492.
55 “Legislative Council,” Sydney Morning Herald, 10 June 1846, 3.
56 “Legislative Council,” 3.
57 J. B. Windeyer, “Windeyer, Richard (1806–1847),” Australian Dictionary of Biography (Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 1967).
58 Roderick Flanagan, The History of New South Wales: With an Account of Van Diemen’s Land [Tasmania], New Zealand, Port Phillip [Victoria], Moreton Bay, and other Australasian Settlements: Comprising a Complete View of the Progress and Prospects of Gold Mining in Australia, vol. II (London: Sampson Low, 1862), 70.
59 Flanagan, History of New South Wales, 70.
60 McKenzie, Scandal in the Colonies, 153.
61 “The Obscene Publications,” Sydney Morning Herald, 19 April 1843, 2.
62 Russell, “Unsettling Settler Society,” 36.
63 Martin Crotty, Making the Australian Male: Middle-Class Masculinity 1870–1920 (Carlton South, VIC: Melbourne University Press, 2001), 15–16.
64 Stoddart, Saturday Afternoon Fever, 16.
65 Stoddart, Saturday Afternoon Fever, 16.
66 Daryl Adair and Wray Vamplew, Sport in Australian History (South Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1997), 4.
67 Stoddart, Saturday Afternoon Fever, 84.
68 Crotty, Making the Australian Male, 99.
69 Henry Mayer, The Press in Australia (Melbourne: Lansdowne Press, 1964), 12.
70 Mayer, The Press in Australia, 12.
71 Mayer, The Press in Australia, 13–14. Mayer cites comments in the 1880s and 1890s, particularly in regard to long columns of political reports, but coverage in the conservative press was similarly longwinded in unbroken columns of type in the 1840s.
72 Mayer, The Press in Australia, 13–14, 212–13.
73 In Johnson’s time, sport was considered unsuitable for women: organised women’s sports did not begin in Australia until the late 19th century. See Angela Burroughs, “Women, Femininity and Sport: The Contribution of the ‘New Woman’ to Nationhood,” in Sport, History and Australian Culture: Passionate Pursuits, ed. Richard Cashman and Rob Hess (Sydney: Walla Walla Press, 2011), 78–91.
74 Coleman, Obscenity, Blasphemy, Sedition.
75 “Applications for Certificates,” Australian, 8 November 1844, 3.
76 “Family Notices,” Morning Chronicle, 16 July 1845, 3.
77 Bell's Life, 4 January 1845, 1.
78 Bell's Life, 18 January 1845, 1.
79 Bell's Life, 18 January 1845, 1.
80 Cashman, Paradise of Sport, 132.
81 Pickering remained at Bell’s Life until 1868, but was also a member of the NSW Legislative Assembly 1865–1868. He died in Levuka, Fiji, in 1876. See “Mr George Ferrers PICKERING,” Parliament of NSW, https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/members/formermembers/Pages/former-member-details.aspx?pk=189 (accessed 4 September 2023).
82 Bell's Life, editorial, 20 February 1847, 1.
83 Bell's Life, editorial, 20 February 1847, 1.
84 “Sportsmen,” Bell's Life, 13 March 1847, 2.
85 “Bell’s Life in Sydney,” Bell's Life, 10 June 1848, 1.
86 “Supreme Court,” Bell's Life, 25 November 1848, 2; “Ruffianism,” Bell's Life, 3 March 1849, 2.
87 Sporting Times, 1 July 1848, 1.
88 Sporting Times, 1 July 1848, 1.
89 Walker, The Newspaper Press in New South Wales, 115.
90 “Police Office,” Bathurst Advocate, 23 June 1849, 2.
91 Henry Mayer, The Press in Australia (Melbourne: Landsdowne Press, 1968), 22. This is another example of Johnson being ahead of his time. Mayer points out that Sunday newspapers did not take off in Australia until the 1880s.
92 “The Australasian Sporting Magazine,” National Library of Australia, https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/499490?lookfor=title:%22australasian%20sporting%20magazine%22&offset=1&max=1 (accessed 19 October 2022).
93 “Sketches from the Turon Gold Fields, New South Wales,” Illustrated London News, 21 August 1852, 124–25. The current Royal Hotel in Sofala is not this original, but was constructed in 1862. Likewise, the old building known today as the General Store was built in the 1860s.
94 “The Turon Diggings,” Empire, 29 September 1851, 3.
95 “Domestic Intelligence,” Moreton Bay Courier, 13 March 1852, 3. The horse, which raced until it was 19, was in its later years affectionately known in the press as “old Jorrocks”.
96 Mikhala Harkins and Laura Breen, “Australia's First Celebrity Racehorse,” National Museum Australia, accessed 19 October 2022, https://www.nma.gov.au/explore/collection/highlights/portrait-of-jorrocks.
97 Carl B. Cone, “The Genesis of John Jorrocks, Fox-’unter,” The Kentucky Review 3, no. 3 (1982): 20.
98 “The Turon,” Sydney Morning Herald, 20 January 1852, 2.
99 “The Turon,” Sydney Morning Herald, 23 January 1852, 3.
100 “Advertising,” Bell's Life, 13 March 1852, 3.
101 “Sofala. Notes from the Turon,” Sydney Morning Herald, 19 February 1853, 2.
102 “Sofala. Notes from the Turon,” 2.
103 “Advertising,” Bell's Life, 2 July 1853, 4.
104 “Insolvent Court,” Empire, 4 September 1855, 7.
105 “Dr Thomas Revel Johnson”.
106 “The Late Mr. Thomas Revel Johnson,” Bell's Life, 1 August 1863, 3.
107 “The Late Mr. Thomas Revel Johnson,” 3.
108 “The Late Mr. Thomas Revel Johnson,” 3.
109 “The Late Mr. Thomas Revel Johnson,” 3.
110 “The Orphan Children (8) of the Late Thomas Revel Johnson,” Bell's Life, 29 August 1863, 2.
111 “The Orphan Children,” 2.
112 “Family Notices,” Sydney Morning Herald, 24 September 1863, 1.
113 Elizabeth Van de Polder,” Geni, accessed 19 October 2022, https://www.geni.com/people/Elizabeth-Van-de-Polder/6000000042047758176.
114 Adair and Vamplew, Sport in Australian History, 24.
115 Stoddart, Saturday Afternoon Fever, 84, 88–89.
116 Bell's Life, 1 August 1863, 3.
117 Bell's Life, 11 January 1845, 1.
118 “The Liberty of the Press!!!,” 1.