THATCHER, CHARLES RICHMOND, was the son of a natural history collector in Brighton, England, and came to New Zealand in 1862 in the interests of his father. A clever elocutionist and improviser, he gave entertainments in Otago and afterwards all over New Zealand, at which he made free use of local quips and doggerel composed by himself on political and personal topics. The 'inimitable Thatcher,' as he was called, is said to have coined the term 'old identity' in a song of eight verses which he composed during a provincial election in Otago in which E. B. Cargill was a candidate. Thatcher returned to England about 1870. He was on the continent just after the Franco-Prussian war buying goods for his own business in the West End of London.

Buller; Hocken, Otago; Weston; Hindmarsh, 106; Otago Daily Times, May 1871.

Reference: Volume 2, page 192

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