Thomas Satchell
the search for my great, great, great uncle from Japan

"After life's fitful fever, they sleep well"

John M. Cantu January 11, 2019

About

The Scribble

This page is a collection of information compiled on Thomas Satchell, my great, great, great uncle, who traveled to Japan at the end of the 19th century. The information has been gathered over several years through sporadic attempts to unearth details of his life—for the most part, hidden from my family's history. What started as a simple document to share with my family dragged me down a rabbit hole to discover a treasure trove of information. It is not perfect and will need updating/editing as time passes, but I hope you enjoy the read and that it may help you discover fragments of your long-lost past.

Thomas & Suzu circa 1910

About

Thomas Satchell

Born: St Pancras, Middlesex (London) November 3, 1867

Died: Kobe, Japan, February 3, 1956 (88 years old)

Buried: Kasugano Foreign Cemetery in Kobe, Japan

Background: Translator, journalist, editor, author, English teacher, linguist, current shorthand teacher, English scholar & academic. Thomas Satchell is remembered as an accomplished translator, particularly for his pathbreaking translation of the Japanese classic Shank's Mare.

Education: Hurstpierpoint College, West Sussex and the University of Rostock, Germany.

Relationship: Great, great, great uncle

Thomas Satchell

Parents: Hannah Mordey (1828-1897) and Thomas Satchell (1830-1887)

Brother: William Arthur Satchell—born in London in 1861 and passed away in Auckland, New Zealand in 1942 (81 years old). New Zealand author and my great, great grandfather.

Wife: Suzu Yamazaki—born October 2, 1890, passed away August 5, 1975 (84 years old). Thomas met Suzu while working for the Japan Herald in Yokohama.

Daughter: Nora Satchell¹—born in Kobe on July 13, 1911, passed away in Wilton, Fairfield, Connecticut on November 5, 1994 (84 years old).

Daughter: Alice Satchell—born in Wakayama on October 15, 1914. Alice died at sea on January 4, 1940, when she was only 25 years old. Sadly, no further information could be found.

Daughter: Gertrude Satchell—born in Kobe on August 3, 1917, passed away in Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire, England, on September 2004 (87 years old).

Notes

At 23 years of age, Nora traveled to England on the Trier (pictured above), arriving in Drover, England, on September 17, 1934. At 29 years of age, she emigrated to America, traveling on the Fernglen (pictured right) and arriving in May 1941 with her future husband, Scandinavian Kurth O Skulstad². As the ship departed from Osaka, Japan, she must have returned to Japan from England before sailing to America with him. She arrived in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, in 1941 and, at some point, married Kurth. Nora lived in Wilton, Fairfield, Connecticut, and passed away in 1994 at 84 years of age.
Kurth Skulstad (Kurth Ole Skulstad) was born on January 18, 1914, in Bergen, Norway. His father was Ole J Skulstad and his mother was Josefine E Torkildsen. Kurth passed on August 28, 1977, at 63 years of age.

"After life's fitful fever, they sleep well" is engraved on Thomas’s gravestone, where he rests with his wife Suzu and daughter Alice. It is a quote taken from Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Right: Excerpt from Registers and Returns of British subjects 1627-1960, Kobe Baptisms, Marriages, 1874-1939 (RG 33/122). Here, the dates of birth of Nora, Alice, and Gertrude are entered with the names of their parents, Thomas and Suzu. Their surname, home address, and Thomas's occupation as a journalist are also entered. Though I cannot make out the name written to the very right (possibly F. Keltlowell), it appears to be of the missionary priest who entered the journal on March 24th, 1929.

Thomas self-published haiku poems and other works during the 1920s and early 1930s; however, he is best remembered in literary circles for his masterful translation of "Tokaidochu Hizakurige" in 1929. Known in English as "Shank's Mare," Tokaidochu Hizakurige is a satirical work written in 1802 by the writer Ikku Jippensha. The word "hizakurige" means a kind of pilgrimage made on foot, while "Tokaido" is the name of a ancient roadway famously used by travellers. The book used obscene imagery and vulgar language to poke fun at the corruptions of the world. Jippensha (1765-1831) primarily targeted the swaggering samurai and the money-grubbing Buddhist priests.

Above: Thomas with an early copy of "Hizakurige". Circa 1950

Translated Works

Shank’s Mare by Ikku Jippensha (Tokaidochu Hizakurige 東海道中膝栗毛) (1929)
Privately printed selection of poems from Manyoshu and Hyakujin Isshu (Japanese poetic classics)
Across the Death-Line by Toyohiko Kagawa (Shisen o Koete 死線を越えて) (1923/24) *Also known as “Before the Dawn”.
A Shooter at the Sun by Toyohiko Kagawa (Taiyo o Iru Mono 太陽を射るもの) (1925/26)

Right: Cover of Shank's Mare (lesser known cover: note placement of possessive apostrophe is Shanks' and not Shank's.)

Bottom right: Drawing of Ikku Jippensha (author)

Bottom left: Scene from the Shank's Mare.

Authored Books

First English Conversation Lessons for Japanese Students (1910)
These from the Land of Nippon (Tanaka & Co., 1935)
新和文英譯法 (Methods for Translating Japanese into English) (川瀬日進堂書店1936) (pictured right in a newspaper)
英国名文解釈演習 (Practice for the Understanding of English Sentences) (英宝社 1957)
1日2題英文解釈力の錬成 (2 Exercises Per Day to Improve Your Understanding of English) (1957)
英国名文解釈演習 (British Classics to Practice English) (英宝社1957)

*Several of the books above appear to have been published or republished posthumously as Thomas passed in 1956.

The following titles appear to have been authored/prefaced/contributed by his father, Thomas Satchell Snr—though several websites note Thomas Satchell Jnr as the author. Judging by the publication dates, Thomas Jnr would have barely been 13 years old at the time of the first book and 16 years old for the second two. It is worth noting that the books were published by W. Satchell & Co., the publishing company that Thomas Snr. established for his son William. See here (WorldCat Identities) for information on

publications by Thomas Satchell Jnr; these include those I suspect of being authored, etc., by this father.

The Angler's Note-Book and Naturalist's Record. Green Series complete (1880)
A Chronicle of the Complete Angler w/ Thomas Westwood (1883)
Bibliotheca Piscatoria: A Catalogue of Books on Angling (1883)
A Booke of Fishing with Hooke and Line (pictured right) (1884)
The bibliography of Izaak Walton's Complete Angler (1886)

Edited & Revised Publications

How to Paraphrase 英文解釈法 (Eibun Kaishakuho) (pictured right), By Juro Umezawa (1903), Revised by Thomas Satchell

* Thomas noted as the author in Japanese on the website

Far Right: Before the Dawn (otherwise known as Across the Death-Line) translated by Thomas. By Toyohiko Kagawa (1923/24).

Below: Scene from Tokaidochu Hizakurige.

The War

Thomas was interned during WWll and could not work until the war's end. Below are notes from Dr. Keiko Tamura, a researcher at the Australian National University, who researched foreigners during the war in Japan. We were in contact over several emails and I received the following information.

“He and his family resided in Himeji at the beginning of the war and they lived in Kobe towards the end. His wife's name was Suzu and daughter's name Gertrude. I am pasting the note I took from the Swiss Consulate records.”

“Thomas Satchell resident of Himeji. Wanted to remain in Japan. Lived in Kobe and experienced the air raid in 1945/06. (Swiss, 4) Received 300 yen in 1942, 3600 yen in 1943, 4338 yen in 1944 and 4000 yen in 1945 from the Swiss Authority. Received further 500 yen in 1946/01 and 500 yen in 1946/02. (FO262/2042). He and his wife lived in Nakajima-dori, Fukiai-ku as of 1945/11/30. (Swiss, 3)”

Quotes about his translations (separate sources)

“One can only admire the remarkable congruency that Thomas Satchell managed to create between the modified Cockney and the unregenerate Edoko (old Japanese dialect) speech of Yaji and Kita in his translations of Jippensha Ikku’s Hizakurige”.

Robert W. Leutner, “Shikitei Sanba and the Comic Tradition in Edo Fiction” PG 111.

“Despite Thomas Satchell’s pathbreaking 1926 translation of Jippensha Ikku’s Tokaido Hizakurige (Shank’s Mare), Edo-period comic prose is only beginning to be known in the West, even if nearly everyone agrees that it constituted one of the pillars of early modern Japanese literature”.

Gerald Groemer “Asian Ethnology Volume 68”, Number 1, 2009, PG 151

“Satchell cleverly used English slang and idioms to give his readers an easy way to relate to the Edo-period humor”.

Unknown source (unable to find original link used)

“…English edition published by Tuttle and translated ably by Thomas Satchell, which is saying a lot as the puns themselves are a translator’s nightmare”.

Midori Snyder, Author, “Shank's Mare: Hoofing It Down the Tokaido Road”, September 01, 2018

“Mr. Thomas Satchell, whose brief article on the spelling of Compositors A and B in the First Folio text of Macbeth initiated compositional analysis in 1920, spent most of his later life in Japan...I have a great admiration for Thomas Satchell as the man whose 1920 article in TLS provided the impetus that led eventually to Charlton Hinman’s monumental study of The Printing and Proof-reading of the First Folio".

J.F. Andrews, Author, “The Present State of Shakespearean Studies in The United States,” Folger Shakespeare Library, 1975, PG 15 (J・F・アンドルーズ博士特別講演要旨　アメリカのシェイクスピア研究/フォルジャー・シェイクスピア図書館)

“Satchell was a modest person and included no personal information in his books, just his name written in phonetic Japanese”.

Unknown source (unable to find original link used)

“The fifty-three stages of the Tokaido” by Hiroshige Ando and faithfully rendered into English by Thomas Satchell”.

Noted in the preface of Shank’s Mare

Florida Writers Association: “Anything in particular about your award-winning RPLA entry that you’d like to share”?

Author, Karen Dillon: “My story deliberately breaks with the tradition of having Japanese characters express themselves in stilted, formal language. This was not some innovation I came up with on my own. Thomas Satchell’s marvelous, slangy English translation of the equally marvelous and slangy original novel Shank’s Mare, written by Ikku Jippensha in the early 1800s, set this precedent nearly a century ago. Removing the distancing effect of formal language made the roguish main characters endearing and human in a way I had never encountered in the stiff, reverent translations of more serious scholars, and as soon as I read the opening chapters, I knew this was the tone I wanted to set in my own writing”.

Writings and Mentions of Thomas…

The Twain Shall Meet: An Outline History of Foreign Interaction with Japan, 2014, Russel Watson see here

I was in contact with Russel when I discovered he was looking to find information on Thomas for his book, "The Twain Shall Meet", in 2012. I would also like to thank Russell for kindly providing the few photos I have of Thomas, one including his wife, Suzu. They came along just as I posted this document and most definitely put the icing on the cake. Thank you.

Excerpt

As the 1930s drew to a close, the government increasingly cracked down on journalism, and Satchell would have relied more heavily on teaching English to make a living. He was interned from 1941-45 in Kobe along with other foreigners, despite having been in the country for longer than many of his prison guards had been alive. By all accounts, conditions in the internment camps were Spartan but no worse than those suffered by the general populace. Satchell and his family were reunited at the end of the war, but he was unable to resume work. Perhaps his age and the shattered economy both played a part. He attempted to establish a current shorthand society in 1953 but to no avail. Thomas Satchell died on February 3rd, 1956 aged 87 (*88 is correct) and was buried in the Foreign Cemetery in Kobe. In 1960, Tuttle Publishing Company reissued “Shank’s Mare” with new notes that included details of Satchell’s life. His translation of Jippensha’s comic masterpiece has continued to give pleasure to all who encounter its “robust, salty, endless joy” as the writer James Michener is quoted saying on the cover of the most recent edition.

Thanks to Joyce Hoad and Andrew Murakami-Smith via Geneology.com who provided much useful information
William Satchell (1860-1942) emigrated to New Zealand and became the first major New Zealand novelist. All quotes taken from “Hizakurige” by Ikku Jippensha, pub Tuttle
Thanks to Thomas Satchell’s great, great, great nephew, John M. Cantu for information on the Satchell family.

Other Interesting Things…

Thomas Satchell once owned Henry Sweet’s "Using Phonetics in a New Musical Notation: Henry Sweet’s manuscript notes of 1904 and 1908", which became known as the "Tokyo Manuscript" due to it arriving in Japan. The manuscript somehow came into Thomas’s possession, probably via Otto Jespersen (1860-1943) who received the manuscript from Sweet’s widow when she handed over a bundle of the manuscript to him. In 1942, at nearly 75, Thomas Satchell wanted to donate the material to the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Still, wartime conditions made this impossible and he instead asked the Tokyo Imperial University (帝國大學 Teikoku Daigaku, known today as the University of Tokyo) to take care of it. Its recent whereabouts are unclear. Thomas requested Professor Sanki Ichikawa (1886 – 1970) have Tokyo be responsible for the manuscript.

*Henry Sweet pictured right

Other notes on Thomas…

Bibliographical Analysis: A Historical Introduction, Cambridge Press, 2009, G. Thomas Tanselle

Regarding an academic letter (The Spelling of the First Folio) by Thomas published in the Times Literary Supplement in 1920. Thomas is noted on pages 31, 32, 33 & 98 here

The Struggle for Shakespeare's Text: Twentieth-Century Editorial Theory and Practice, Cambridge Press, 2010, by Gabriel Egan. Same as above: see page 55 here

Shakespeare in Print: A History and Chronology of Shakespeare Publishing, Cambridge Press, 2008, Andrew Murphy. Same as above: see page 47

Ref.

"The Henry Sweet Society, Bulletin, Issue No. 48, May 2007, 23 Using Phonetics in a New Musical Notation: Henry Sweet’s manuscript notes of 1904 and 1908, Michael K. C. MacMahon"

Excerpt

Satchell was born in London, the son of a civil servant. In 1899 he was appointed to the staff of an English-language newspaper in Kobe, Japan. Three years later, he became editor of the Yokohama Japan Herald. For the next 40 years he pursued his newspaper career alongside EFL teaching and translation work in Japan. During World War II he was interned in Japan. In 1953 he proposed the formation of a Current Shorthand Society — to no avail. He died in Kobe in 1956. His translations include the famous Japanese ‘comic novel of travel & ribaldry’ by Ikku Jippensha (Jippensha,1929/1960), and a biographical study of the Christian Socialist, Tokohiko Kagawa (Kagawa, 1924). See also MacMahon (1981:277) for details of Satchell’s experiences of teaching Current shorthand in Japan.

Ref.

"The English-language Press Networks of East Asia, 1918-1945, Global Oriental, PG 63, Peter O'Connor, 2010"

Excerpt

Few non-Japanese learned Japanese between the wars. At SOAS, London University, from 1918 to 1923, the average annual intake of students of Japanese was twenty-seven, and from 1923 to 1941, only eleven. Furthermore, most of these students were studying the language at an elementary level, not for a BA degree. In 1935 in Australia, a survey found only seven people familiar with Japanese: one academic and six persons' able to read and write imperfectly'. Immediately after Pearl Harbor, Donald Keene heard a radio broadcast to the effect that only fifty Americans knew Japanese. Some resident English-language journalists spoke Japanese well, among them Thomas Satchell of the Chronicle, Frank Brinkley of The Times and the Japan Mail and, in the early 1930s, the Reuters correspondent and Japan Advertiser contributor, Malcolm Kennedy. Apart from Satchell, who was primarily a translator, none of the Chronicle writers, including Hearn during his brief tenure as leader writer, had more than a smattering of the language. To most Chronicle and Advertiser writers, Japanese was a service provided by their translators, not a means of communication.

A quick thought

I have often wondered who Thomas may have known—what kind of historical figures he may have crossed paths with in the early westernization of Japan. I am sure there were many as the foreign community was particularly small at the turn of the 19th century, and surely until he passed in 1956. Lafcadio Hearn, probably the first to write about Japanese culture and literature, was someone I believe he would have been acquainted with: they worked at the same newspaper, The Kobe Chronicle, though Hearn left in 1895 and Thomas joined in 1889. Chances that they met and shared conversation is highly probable.

Right: Thomas’s gravestone in Kasugano Foreign Cemetery in Kobe, buried with his wife Suzu and daughter Alice. Taken when mum and I visited in 2012.

His Father

Thomas Satchell Snr.

Born in London in 1830, Thomas Snr., was a high civil servant with an interest in the arts and literature, editing several books and two magazines. He founded the Satchell publishing company in 1879, and named it for his son William: W Satchell & Co. William (1861-1942) helped his father to manage it, but left in 1884, as the business was failing.

Family Tree

By Name

John M Cantu ⇔ Diane Graham ⇔ Beryl Monk ⇔ Edith Satchell ⇔ William Arthur Satchell (wife Susan¹ Tûpaea)

　　 ⇕

Parents Thomas Satchell Snr. & Hannah Mordey

　　 ⇕

Nora Satchell Skulstad ⇔ Thomas Satchell (wife Suzu¹ Yamazaki)

Alice Satchell

Gertrude Satchell

By Relationship & First Name

Me⇔Mum Diane⇔Nana Beryl ⇔ Great grandmother Edith⇔ Great, Great Grandfather William (great, great grandmother Susan)

　　 ⇕

Great, great, great grandparents Thomas Satchell Snr. & Hannah Mordey

　　 ⇕

3rd cousin Nora² ⇔ Great, great, great uncle Thomas (great, great, great auntie Suzu)

3rd cousin Alice

3rd cousin Gertrude

It is interesting to note that although my great, great grandmother and great, great, great auntie were on opposite sides of the planet (one in New Zealand and the other in Japan), they mirrored each other as the wives of the Satchell brothers and were coincidentally named Susan and Suzu respectively. As any Kiwi or Aussie would know, we call Susan "Suz" for short in New Zealand and Australia. This is almost the exact pronunciation of the name Suzu in Japan. Quite an amazing coincidence.
Nora, Alice and Gertrude are mum’s 2nd cousins once-removed, which in turn makes them my 3rd cousins. See more here.

His Brother

William Arthur Satchell (1861-1942)

-New Zealand's First Real Author-

Work

Though Thomas worked in many linguistic professions over his lifetime, one of his prominent positions was in the newspaper business. He was an English language newspaper editor, first at the Kobe Chronicle¹ in Kobe from 1899-1902, then the Japan Herald in Yokohama from 1902-1912², and editor of the Japan Mail³ from 1912-1913⁴. He was also a very accomplished translator and spent time working as an English teacher as well. Thomas taught at Himeji State College in Hyogo—probably the girl's school Mum and I were told of by the caretaker at the cemetery we visited in 2012.

Notes

ISSN 0288-5913 「コミュニケーション研究」　第36号、鈴木雄雅、上智大学コミュニケーション学会、神戸英字紙界と日露戦争、PG 7. Note that the Kobe Chronicle is also noted as the Chronicle in some sources: "Social Currents in Japan" With Special Reference to the Press, 1927, Harry Emerson Wildes, Ph.D., Sometime Professor of Economics, Keio University, Tokyo. Additionally, it is also stated that he wrote for the Kobe Herald (formerly Kobe Herald & Osaka Gazette: National Library of Australia Bib ID2967969)
Differing sources offer conflicting information on the dates he served as editor. "Find a Grave" suggests Thomas was hired as an editor from 1902, while "The English Language Press Networks of East Asia, 1918–1945" by Peter O'Connor, Musashino University, 2010, notes that he served as editor from 1905.
The Japan Mail is today known as the Japan Times; Japan’s biggest English newspaper. The paper was originally based in Yokohama but relocated to Tokyo in 1912. From the information available, it appears that Thomas resigned due to the increased distance he needed to travel to Tokyo.
Yuga Suzuki notes the newspaper as the Japan Gazette in the paper ISSN 0288-5913 「コミュニケーション研究」　第36号、鈴木雄雅、上智大学コミュニケーション学会、神戸英字紙界と日露戦争、PG 7. The following dates and positions are given as follows in Japanese: Kobe Chronicle, assistant editor and reporter 1899–1902; Japan Herald, chief editor, 1904–1910; and Japan Gazette, chief editor, 1912–1913.

Born: February 1, 1861, Islington, Middlesex, England. Passed away on October 21, 1942, Auckland, New Zealand.

Parents: Hannah Mordey (1828-1897) and Thomas Satchell (1830-1887).

Sister: Alice Elaine Satchell (1863–1887), born in Islington, Middlesex, England.

Sister: Rosemary M Satchell (1866–1944), born in St Pancras, Middlesex, England.

Brother: Thomas (Jnr) Satchell (1868–1956), born in St Pancras, Middlesex, England.

Auntie: Jane Satchell (1834–unknown), born on November 13, 1834 in Sunderland, Durham, England.

Daughter: Edith Hannah Satchell 1890–1966 (nana’s mother), born in New Zealand, passed away on December 13, 1966, in Mangonui, Far North, Northland, New Zealand. Married Samuel James McMullien (1887–1973) who was born July 24, 1887.

Son: Thomas Arthur Satchell (1892–1950), born in Parnell, Auckland, New Zealand. Passed away July 10, 1950, 22 Melton Street, Auburn, NSW, Australia. Married Ada Florence Renwith (1891–1943) in Petersham, Sydney in 1916.

Son: Alan Satchell (1893–1944), born in Ponsonby, Auckland, New Zealand, passed away in Auckland, New Zealand on June 20, 1944.

Son: William Mordey Satchell (1895–1963), born in Auckland, New Zealand, passed away in Mt Roskill, Auckland, New Zealand. Married Eileen Lucy Evans in 1921.

Daughter: Alice Elaine Satchell, born in 1897. Place of birth and date passed is unknown. Married Harry Ormsby Lloyd.

Daughter: Victoria May Satchell, born in 1901. Place of birth and date passed is unknown.

Son: Hugh Hurst Satchell (1903–1965) born in Mt Roskill, Auckland, New Zealand.

Son: George Francis Satchell (1905–unknown), born in Mt Roskill, Auckland, New Zealand.

Regarded as New Zealand's first real author, William Arthur Satchell was born in London in 1861. He was the son of Hannah Mordey (1828-1897) and Thomas Satchell (1830-1887), a civil servant and correspondent for the Oxford English Dictionary, who became a surveyor general of the Inland Revenue. William sailed to New Zealand on the Arawa on May 21, 1886. He was accompanied by Elmer J. Brown, who was hired to work for him. William's brother, Thomas Satchell Jnr, and cousin Frank Tomlinson joined them the following year (each receiving financial support from William).

William was an orchardist, writer, stockbroker, novelist, and accountant. And while he is best known as an author, he was also a poet and dedicated his time to poetry. He married Susan Bryers (Susan Tupaea Nehua Bryers, 1872-1937) on November 15, 1889. Susan was the 17-year-old granddaughter of London-born pioneer Joseph Bryers and highborn Maori, Kohu Whareumu* (Kohu Katerina Bryers Whareumu). They were happily married and bore 9-children together: 5 boys and 4 girls (I could only find 8 online). The firstborn was Edith, my great-grandmother (nana's mother¹). In 1891, William abandoned his enterprise (farm) and Thomas returned to England while Brown moved to Australia. In 1909, he became secretary to the Auckland Horticultural Society, and in 1920 accountant to the S. P. Gibbons Timber Co. Satchell was a small, shy man with an aristocratic demeanour which led to him being known to his friends as "the little Duke." In 1939, he was awarded a Civil List pension. He died in Auckland on 21 October 1942. His poetry is largely popular and satirical, but in fiction his outstanding qualities of literary craftsmanship, his sense of humour, deep understanding of pioneer and racial problems, and sustained narrative skill establish him as the first major New Zealand novelist. He was also known to use the pseudonym "Saml. Cliall White".

Nana, Edith's daughter, was born Hannah Morniham Barburidge and changed her name to Beryl; I am told she did not like her name Hannah. I suspect that nana was given her mother's middle name (Hannah), which was also her grandmother's (William's mother's) birth name—Hannah Mordey. She married my grandfather John Leslie Monk (also known as Jeff or Jack). It also appears that William and Edith's first son, Thomas, was named after William's father and brother, who were both called Thomas Satchell.

Literature by William A. Satchell

The Land of the Lost (1902)
The Toll of the Bush (1905)
The Greenstone Door (1917)
The Elixir of Life (1907)
Bedlam Ballads, and Straitwaistcoat Stories ... With illustrations by Allan Fen (1883)
Will o' the Wisp and Other Tales in Verse and Prose (1883)
Why I came to New Zealand (1894)
The Cadet (sometime between 1892~1900)
The Girls of Girton (sometime between 1892~1900)
Patriotic and Other Poems (1900, consisted of several poems)
Hinemoa (poem)
Hemeroma (poem)

The Land of the Lost looks back at his time in Hokianga, showing how deeply he had absorbed its atmosphere, particularly the gum fields. His brother Tom who had returned to Japan and was a journalist with the Japan Herald, said, “it’s very good, but I think you can do better.” After Tool of the Bush was published, William received a letter from Medora Adam, also from Japan, which said: “No one before, I think, has had the courage to put such a hero into a book and let him live and retain the breadth of mind bestowed upon him by his author.” The Daily Mail acclaimed it as “the best novel to appear for 10 years”. But the novel has only once been reprinted—in 1985. His three successful novels represent the most significant achievement in New Zealand fiction before the First World War.

Right: Picture of the Arawa - the ship William travelled on to reach New Zealand in 1886.

Thomas Satchell the search for my great, great, great uncle from Japan

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Thomas Satchell
the search for my great, great, great uncle from Japan