James Cox (11 October 1846, in Snodshill in

Chiseldon Chiseldon is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The village lies on the edge of the Marlborough Downs, a mile south of junction 15 of the M4 motorway, on the A346 between Swindon and Marlborough. The larg ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

– 19 July 1925, in

Greytown, New Zealand Greytown (), is a rural town in the South Wairarapa District, in the lower North Island of New Zealand. It is by road north-east of Wellington and southwest of Masterton, travelling via New Zealand State Highway 2, State Highway 2. History ...

) was an English office worker and later a New Zealand

flax Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, ''Linum usitatissimum'', in the family Linaceae. It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climates. In 2022, France produced 75% of t ...

worker,

swagman A swagman (also called a swaggie, sundowner or tussocker) was a transient labourer who traveled by foot from farm to farm carrying his belongings in a swag. The term originated in Australia in the 19th century and was later used in New Zealan ...

(itinerant labourer), and agricultural worker. He is remembered because of his extensive diary. Cox was the son of a prosperous small farmer. He became a clerical assistant for the Great Western Railway Company. When in 1880 his mother sold the family farm (Cox was then 34, single, and living with his mother), he emigrated from England to New Zealand, living in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

, New Zealand until 1888 and thereafter in the

North Island The North Island ( , 'the fish of Māui', historically New Ulster) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait. With an area of , it is the List ...

, where he worked in a flax mill. The mill closed in 1890 and thereafter Cox lived a hand-to-mouth existence, a hard life of vagrancy, intermittent and arduous labour, and poverty. He was buried in an unmarked grave, but a headstone was placed for him at Greytown Cemetery in 2013. After 1888, he kept a very detailed diary, the surviving portion being about 800,000 words. The diary offers a unique and valuable account of New Zealand working class life of the period. Miles Fairburn wrote a 1995 book, ''Nearly Out of Heart and Hope'', based on Cox's diaries. Cox's dairies were featured in the 2013 exhibition "Logs to blogs" at the

Alexander Turnbull Library The National Library of New Zealand () is charged with the obligation to "enrich the cultural and economic life of New Zealand and its interchanges with other nations" (National Library of New Zealand (Te Puna Mātauranga) Act 2003). Under the ...

in Wellington. Cox was the cousin of nature writer

Richard Jefferies John Richard Jefferies (6 November 1848 – 14 August 1887) was an English nature writer, noted for his depiction of English rural life in essays, books of natural history, and novels. His childhood on a small Wiltshire farm had a great influ ...

; as teens, Cox and Jefferies set off on an unsuccessful adventure, first planning to walk to Moscow and, this having failed, to sail to America, which also proved impossible.

References

External links

Cox's Twitter feed

References

External links

Further reading