Page 49 - eclipse - Autumn 2018

CLASSNOTES
The tale of Thomas Asserton-Smith - an alumnus from 1883
Iam sure any alumnus would agree with the statement that graduating from the RVC is one of the most significant events in their life, but
the tale of Thomas Asserton-Smith shows it can also be the one
of the most enduring features in how we are remembered by our descendants.
The library recently received
an interesting query relating
to its archives. The Australian descendant of an alumnus was in the process of researching her relative Thomas Asserton-Smith. The only information she had about him was that he had graduated on 13th Jan 1883 and moved to Calcutta shortly afterwards. By consulting the old registry documents we hold in the archives we were able to supply her with some more details about Thomas, but not without a bit of detective work. This was conducted by the RVC’s leading ladies in archival retrieval, Sonia Nimley, Louise Avie and
Anna Griffiths.
We didn’t find any matching details
listed under A for Asserton. This left us with a long list of Smith’s to trawl through.
period of his studies just three and a half years.
We were excited to be able
to pass this information on to Thomas’s descendant. Like many alumni from the College Thomas’s life and memory were closely connected to their time at
the RVC.
Do you have something you would like to be added to the RVC archives? If so, please email us
at development@rvc.ac.uk. This could be you in 135 years time...!!!
Graduating from the RVC... “
can also be the one of the most enduring features in how we are rememb”ered
by our descendants
After locating the page for 1883
and finding a few near matches we located a T.A. Smith. Could this be the Thomas we were looking for? After checking out the accompanying details we thought so. By cross referencing this with the student registration book we were able to let his descendant know a lot more about Thomas.
Asserton was presumably a given name rather than a family name. Thomas had come to the College
from Calcutta and returned there after Graduation. He was born 25th January 1862 and enrolled at the College on 28th September 1879. Making the
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