Thomas Reid (naval surgeon)

Thomas Reid was an Irish-born surgeon in the Royal Navy who lived from 1791 to 1825. He was educated near Dungannon in County Tyrone, joined the Navy around 1811 and passed the examinations of the Royal College of Surgeons in London in 1813. He was appointed a naval surgeon on 10 January 1814. As surgeon superintendent he made two voyages on convict ships, the Neptune with male prisoners, which reached Sydney in May 1818, and the Morley with female prisoners, which reached Hobart in August 1820. He was a close associate of the prison reformer Elizabeth Fry, at whose suggestion he took on these voyages, and he dedicated to her his book on the two voyages to New South Wales and Van Diemen Land. In 1823 he also published an account of a tour of Ireland made in 1822.