Joseph ('Tommy') Blake-Thompson

Joseph ('Tommy') Blake-Thompson
File:Blake-Thompson, Joseph ('Tommy').jpg
Born	1886
Died	1962
Residence	B.S.A. Police Salisbury, S. Rhodesia c/o M.O.H., PO Box 596 Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia [census] PO Box 196, Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia, Central Africa [1949] Southern Rhodesia Native Department, Nuanetsi, Chibi District, Southern Rhodesia [1955]
Occupation	medical police
Society Membership membership ordinary fellow left 1962 deceased elected_AI 1932.05.24 societies Rhodesia Scientific Association

Notes

House Notes

1932.04.26 proposed by H.J. Braunholtz, seconded by T.A. Joyce
1963.01.10 death noted

short autobiographical note in A71

Notes From Elsewhere

b. 28 Apr 1886 Medical Inspector of Natives
“Joseph Blake Thompson was born on the 28th April 1886 – I think in England. He studied
medicine after leaving school and attended the Sorbonne in Paris, but did not qualify as a
doctor.
I first knew him as a Medical Sergeant Major in the BSA Police Depot in 1931. He was then
a short, wiry, sandy haired man of 50. I was in hospital with a plague of boils, caused by
constant contact saddle and recruits anatomy, and he took a rather sadistic delight in
squeezing them. I remember being disgusted t having to share the Trooper’s Ward with
several men from Outstations suffering from VD. Blake Thompson’s only concession was to
make the “unclean lepers” as he called them use a separate lavatory.
I did not see him again until 1955 when he was taken on by Shabani Mine as a Recruiting
Officer down at Marhumbini. At that time there was a general shortage of mine labour,
mainly because local tribesmen did not like going underground. Tommy’s job was to recruit
Shanganes from PEA (Mocambique) who only had to walk across the border, a mile away, to
be signed on. His Depot was on the south bank of the Lundi River about 2.5 miles from its
confluence with the Sabi, and about 2 miles away from a Mission Station (The Assemblies of
God Mission) up on the Escarpment. His house was built on a small hill about 200 yards
from the river. He operated there from March 1955 until December 1960. He was the most
suitable man as he was prepared to live as a hermit with very infrequent visits from
Europeans.
His medical training was very useful as he examined all recruits (Even to the extent of seeing
that their hats were on straight) and acted as an unofficial doctor to the locals for miles
around.
He was somewhat eccentric and the local tribesmen, and even his own recruiting runners,
regarded him as being well “round the bend”. I visited him once with a man named Cleaver
from Shabani. We were quite amazed to witness a Flag Raising ceremony and Retreat every
morning and evening. The Guard consisted of about five or six runners with a Compound
Police Corporal in charge. Blake Thompson himself shouted the orders, dressed in a vest,
khaki pants and stable hat, standing stiffly to attention, with a stick under his arm. I am quite
sure that in his imagination he wore a string of decorations and shining brass, and that each
“ragged arsed” guard was a Coldstreamer in Bearskin and Scarlet Tunic. He told us it was
good for morale and prestige to maintain some semblance of pageantry in “These outposts of the Empire”.
We had a twenty seat recruiting bus which we used to run from Shabani via Rutenga and
Malvernia to Marhumbini. The last fifty miles twisted in and out of Portuguese tewrritory,
right along the international border. Our relations with the Portuguese authorities in those
days were not very good for they resented our recruiting Portuguese Africans without paying
them a capitation fee. We were afraid that they would confiscate the bus, and so we cut a new
road from Chikombedzi to Marhumbini across what is now the Gono-Re-Zhou Game Reserve.
Blake Thompson corresponded with all sorts of people including some black nationalists. I
think that he used to write to Sir Roy Welensky. I do not know what happened to his papers,
but he may have handed some of them to the Bulawayo Museum.
He was friendly with Mr Hank Blowers (Ex Deputy Commissioner), a senior officer in the
BSA Police, now retired.”
Despite the fact that the only other Europeans at Marhumbini were the Koopmans at
Marhumbini Mission, Tommy would have nothing to do with them. All he would say was that
he did not like them. I never did learn the reason for this, although I knew Tommy quite well.
When any policeman visited him though, he would talk non-stop from morning to evening.
Even going to the toilet would not stop him for he would follow, and continue talking.
Blake Thompson died at Shabani on the 16th November 1962.

One of the characters of the South Eastern Lowveld was 2428 Joseph “Tommy” Blake Thompson who ran the Shabani Mine Recruiting Depot at Marhumbini at the junction of the Sabi and Lundi rivers in the 1950s. He was always extremely pleased to see visiting police patrols and welcomed them most hospitably. Conversely, he was always made welcome at the Nuanetsi Police Camp when he passed through en route to Shabani or to places further afield, where he generally spent the night.
The late 5923 Tony Seward compiled a Station History of the Vila Salazar Police Station whilst he was stationed there, and devotes a chapter to Blake Thompson. He wrote to the Mine Manager of Shabani Mine, by the name of Gordon (No 3244 ex Trooper Louis Reginald Gordon), asking for information about Blake Thompson. He received the following information from Gordon: -
“Joseph Blake Thompson was born on the 28th April 1886 – I think in England. He studied medicine after leaving school and attended the Sorbonne in Paris, but did not qualify as a doctor.
I first knew him as a Medical Sergeant Major in the BSA Police Depot in 1931. He was then a short, wiry, sandy haired man of 50. I was in hospital with a plague of boils, caused by constant contact saddle and recruits anatomy, and he took a rather sadistic delight in squeezing them. I remember being disgusted t having to share the Trooper’s Ward with several men from Outstations suffering from VD. Blake Thompson’s only concession was to
make the “unclean lepers” as he called them use a separate lavatory.
I did not see him again until 1955 when he was taken on by Shabani Mine as a Recruiting Officer down at Marhumbini. At that time there was a general shortage of mine labour, mainly because local tribesmen did not like going underground. Tommy’s job was to recruit Shanganes from PEA (Mocambique) who only had to walk across the border, a mile away, to be signed on. His Depot was on the south bank of the Lundi River about 2.5 miles from its confluence with the Sabi, and about 2 miles away from a Mission Station (The Assemblies of God Mission) up on the Escarpment. His house was built on a small hill about 200 yards from the river. He operated there from March 1955 until December 1960. He was the most suitable man as he was prepared to live as a hermit with very infrequent visits from Europeans.
His medical training was very useful as he examined all recruits (Even to the extent of seeing that their hats were on straight) and acted as an unofficial doctor to the locals for miles around.
He was somewhat eccentric and the local tribesmen, and even his own recruiting runners, regarded him as being well “round the bend”. I visited him once with a man named Cleaver from Shabani. We were quite amazed to witness a Flag Raising ceremony and Retreat every morning and evening. The Guard consisted of about five or six runners with a Compound Police Corporal in charge. Blake Thompson himself shouted the orders, dressed in a vest, khaki pants and stable hat, standing stiffly to attention, with a stick under his arm. I am quite sure that in his imagination he wore a string of decorations and shining brass, and that each “ragged arsed” guard was a Coldstreamer in Bearskin and Scarlet Tunic. He told us it was good for morale and prestige to maintain some semblance of pageantry in “These outposts of the Empire”.
We had a twenty seat recruiting bus which we used to run from Shabani via Rutenga and Malvernia to Marhumbini. The last fifty miles twisted in and out of Portuguese tewrritory, right along the international border. Our relations with the Portuguese authorities in those days were not very good for they resented our recruiting Portuguese Africans without paying them a capitation fee. We were afraid that they would confiscate the bus, and so we cut a new road from Chikombedzi to Marhumbini across what is now the Gono-Re-Zhou Game Reserve.
Blake Thompson corresponded with all sorts of people including some black nationalists. I think that he used to write to Sir Roy Welensky. I do not know what happened to his papers, but he may have handed some of them to the Bulawayo Museum. He was friendly with Mr Hank Blowers (Ex Deputy Commissioner), a senior officer in the
BSA Police, now retired.”
Despite the fact that the only other Europeans at Marhumbini were the Koopmans at Marhumbini Mission, Tommy would have nothing to do with them. All he would say was that he did not like them. I never did learn the reason for this, although I knew Tommy quite well. When any policeman visited him though, he would talk non-stop from morning to evening. Even going to the toilet would not stop him for he would follow, and continue talking.
Blake Thompson died at Shabani on the 16th November 1962.

Related Material Details

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