The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Pratt, Lieut.-General Sir Thomas Simson
Pratt, Lieut.-General Sir Thomas Simson, K.C.B., son of Captain James Pratt, by Anne, daughter of William Simson, was born in 1797, and educated at St. Andrew's University, entering the army as an ensign in Feb. 1814, in which year he performed distinguished service in Holland, and in China in 1841. In Jan. 1860 he succeeded Sir E. Macarthur in the command of the forces in Australia, with the rank of major-general, and in the summer of that year proceeded to New Zealand to conduct the operations against the Maories. After a fairly successful campaign he gave up the local command to General Cameron, and left New Zealand in April 1861 to reassume his Australian command. In 1862 Sir Thomas, who was sometime adjutant-general at Madras, was appointed to the colonelcy of the 37th Regiment, and retired from the active list in 1878 with the rank of lieut.-general. He married, in 1827, Frances Agnes, daughter of John S. Cooper. Sir Thomas was made K.C.B. in 1861, and was publicly invested with the ribbon and badge of the Order of the Bath by Sir Henry Barkly, Governor of Victoria, at Melbourne, on April 15th, 1862, this being the first ceremony of the kind performed in Australia. He died in England in Feb. 1879.