Thomas Larcom Explained

Sir Thomas Larcom
Honorific Suffix:PC FRS
Order:1st
Office:Larcom baronetsBaronet
Term Start:1868
Term End:1879
Office1:Under-Secretary for Ireland
Term Start1:1853
Term End1:1868
Birth Date:22 April 1801
Birth Place:Gosport, Hampshire
Death Date:15 June 1879
Death Place:Hampshire
Children:5
Spouse:Georgina D'Aguilar

Major-General Sir Thomas Aiskew Larcom, Bart, PC FRS (22 April 1801 – 15 June 1879)[1] [2] was a leading official in the early Irish Ordnance Survey. He later became a poor law commissioner, census commissioner and finally executive head of the British administration in Ireland as under-secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, a position the government of the day was eager for him to take.

Born in Gosport, Hampshire, Larcom received his education at the Royal Military Academy and was commissioned in the Royal Engineers in 1820. He began his career with the Ordnance Survey of England in 1824 before being transferred to Ireland. With the rank of lieutenant he led the day-to-day operations of Survey headquarters by 1828 under Lt-Colonel Thomas Colby and established a meteorological observatory in Dublin. At the completion of the Survey's six-inch maps in 1846, Larcom joined the Irish Board of Works.[3] In this role he was involved in the establishment of the Queen's University of Ireland.[2]

The longest-serving under-secretary (1853–1868), Larcom had a distinguished career in his adopted country and acted with an impartiality that won him respect from all parties. In 1868 he was admitted to the Irish Privy Council and created a baronet.[2]

Arms

Escutcheon:Argent on a mount a hawthorn bush Proper and in chief an eagle displayed Gules.
Crest:On a cap of maintenance Azure turned up Ermine a martlet Sable with a fleur-de-lis in its beak Or.
Motto:Le Roy La Loy[4]

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Notes and References

  1. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Larcom,_Thomas_Aiskew_(DNB00) Dictionary of National Biography
  2. http://www.newulsterbiography.co.uk/index.php/home/viewPerson/821 Dictionary of Ulster Biography
  3. J.A. Lawson (1886), 'A Century of Irish Government', Edinburgh Review, no. 336
  4. Book: Burke's Peerage . 1949.