Thomas McCombie

Thomas McCombie (1819 – 2 October 1869) was a journalist, historian, novelist, merchant and politician in colonial Victoria, a member of the Victorian Legislative Council, and later, the Victorian Legislative Assembly.

Biography McCombie was born in Tillyfour, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the son of Charles McCombie and his wife Anne, née Black. McCombie arrived at Melbourne (then in the Port Phillip District of New South Wales) in April 1841. McCombie was one of the first members of the Melbourne Town Council. In 1846 he took an active part in exerting pressure on the Superintendent of Port Phillip, Charles La Trobe, to expend the moneys voted by the Sydney Legislature for public works in Melbourne, and which La Trobe had withheld owing to his distrust of local administration.

In March 1868, McCombie was elected to the lower house seat of Gippsland South, which he held until resigning around March 1869. In 1869 McCombie sailed with his family aboard the Talbot bound for London. After suffering greatly McCombie died on 2 October 1869 in Scotland aged 50; he was survived by his wife and two daughters of their four children.