The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Reynolds, Hon. Thomas
Reynolds, Hon. Thomas, M.P., sometime Premier of South Australia, was elected to the mixed Legislative Council of that colony in June 1854, and in 1857 was returned to the first Legislative Assembly, retaining a seat in the Lower House until his death. Mr. Reynolds was Commissioner of Public Works in the Hanson Ministry from June 1857 to Oct. 1858, when he resigned, and was succeeded by Mr. (now Sir) Arthur Blyth. On the defeat of the Hanson Ministry, in May 1860, Mr. Reynolds became Premier of South Australia, and held office, with the portfolio of Treasurer, from May 1860 to Oct. 1861. He was also Treasurer in the Waterhouse Ministry from Oct. 1861 to Feb. 1862, in that of Mr. Dutton from March to Sept. 1865, and in two of Mr. (now Sir) Henry Ayers' Governments—from May 1867 to Sept. 1868, and from October to November respectively of the latter year. He was Commissioner of Public Works in the last Ayers Government from March 1872 to July 1873. Mr. Reynolds was drowned, with his wife and over a hundred other passengers, in the wreck of the Gottenburg, on the Barrier reef in Torres Straits on Feb. 24th, 1875, whilst on his return from a trip to the Northern Territory, where Judge Wearing, another of the victims of the catastrophe, had opened the first circuit court.