Robert Thom (; 1807 – 14 September 1846) was an English nineteenth century

Chinese language Chinese ( or ) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and List of ethnic groups in China, many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39& ...

translator and diplomat based in Canton (modern day Guangzhou) who worked for the trading house Jardine, Matheson & Co. and was seconded to the British armed forces during the

First Opium War The First Opium War ( zh, t=第一次鴉片戰爭, p=Dìyīcì yāpiàn zhànzhēng), also known as the Anglo-Chinese War, was a series of military engagements fought between the British Empire and the Chinese Qing dynasty between 1839 and 1 ...

(1839 – 1842). For his literary works Thom used Sloth as a nom de plume.

Life

Thom worked in the piece goods department of Jardine, Matheson & Co. where he acquired a knowledge of the Chinese language. When hostilities began between the British and the ruling Chinese

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

in late 1839, Thom, along with other Chinese translators including John Robert Morrison and

Karl Gützlaff Karl Friedrich August Gützlaff (8 July 1803 – 9 August 1851), anglicised as Charles Gutzlaff, was a Germans, German Lutheran missionary to the Far East, notable as one of the first Protestant missionaries in Bangkok, Thailand (1828) and in ...

provided the necessary language interface between the warring factions. In July 1840, during the

, Thom sailed north from Canton aboard HMS ''Blonde'' as translator to Captain Thomas Bourchier. The ship anchored outside Namoy (modern day

Kinmen Kinmen, alternatively known as Quemoy, is a group of islands governed as a county by the Republic of China (Taiwan), only east from the city of Xiamen in Fujian, located at the southeastern coast of the People's Republic of China, from wh ...

, formerly also known as Quemoy) to deliver a letter from British Foreign Secretary

Lord Palmerston Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865), known as Lord Palmerston, was a British statesman and politician who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1855 to 1858 and from 1859 to 1865. A m ...

laying out demands for the opening of China to foreign trade. After Bourchier noticed cannons being mounted on a nearby fort, Thom rowed towards the shore in a small boat carrying a placard warning that if the ship was fired on, Bourchier would retaliate. A number of Chinese from a mob gathered on the shore swam towards Thom's boat and he narrowly missed being hit by an arrow and musket fire as he shouted out the warning written on the placard. Bourchier made good on his promise and shelled the fort and nearby warships before eventually withdrawing. In 1841, Thom assisted the British during the expedition up the Broadway River from

Macao Macau or Macao is a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most densely populated region in the world. Formerly a Portuguese colony, the ter ...

to Canton.Bernard, William Dallas; Hall, William Hutcheon (1847).
The Nemesis in China
' (3rd ed.). London: Henry Colburn. p. 139. He later served as British Consul in Ningpo where he died on 14 September 1846.

Literary works

Thom produced an 1840 Chinese translation of

Aesop's Fables Aesop's Fables, or the Aesopica, is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a Slavery in ancient Greece, slave and storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 Before the Common Era, BCE. Of varied and unclear origins, the stor ...

and was said to be one of the very few westerners who spoke the

Beijing dialect The Beijing dialect ( zh, s=北京话, t=北京話, p=Běijīnghuà), also known as Pekingese and Beijingese, is the prestige dialect of Mandarin spoken in the urban area of Beijing, China. It is the phonological basis of Standard Chinese, the ...

of Mandarin Chinese very well. He also translated the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

Chinese story ''The Lasting resentment of Miss Keaou Lwan Wang, a Chinese Tale'' and wrote several text books for students of the Chinese language.

References

Bibliography

*
The Lasting Resentment of Miss Keaou Lwan Wang, a Chinese Tale
'. Canton Press Office. 1839. *
Esop's Fables Written in Chinese by the Learned Mun Mooy Seen-Shang
'. Canton Press Office. 1840. * ''Chinese and English Vocabulary, compiled chiefly with a view to facilitate intercourse in the Northern ports''
Part 1
Canton. 1843. *
The Chinese Speaker or Extracts from Works Written in the Mandarin Language, as Spoken at Peking
'. Ningpo: Presbyterian Mission Press. 1846. {{DEFAULTSORT:Thom, Robert 1807 births 1846 deaths 19th-century English translators English expatriates in China Chinese–English translators British diplomats English translators English–Chinese translators British people of the First Opium War