Portrait of Tom Coward from Angipena from the S.A. Northern Pioneers' composite, 1850-1859 (shown in position on B 6912/3).

Born 7 July 1834 at Market Lavington, Wiltshire, Tom Coward arrived in South Australia aboard the Fairleigh (ship) in 1840. He joined the mounted police in 1852 and served on the gold escort under Alexander Tolmer, the Police Commissioner. He was later transferred to Port Augusta police station. He gained a reputation as an excellent bushman and joined Peter Warburton on his 1858 expedition in northern South Australia: Warburton named Coward Springs after him. In 1859 he was a member of the party that accompanied Governor MacDonnell on his exploration of the northern parts of the colony.

Following this he was transferred to Mount Gambier with a promotion to corporal, later to Yorke Peninsula and Kangaroo Island and then to Mount Serle in the Flinders Ranges. He later resigned from the South Australian Police and went to New South Wales and Queensland before returning to South Australia where he became the owner of the Imperial Hotel and later the Prince Alfred Hotel, Adelaide. He died in 1905 following complications from an accident on the premises of his hotel.

Angepina is near Mt Serle.

Warburton, Peter Egerton, 1813 - 1889

Death of Mr Tom Coward Observer, 8 July 1905, p.29, 38, col. c-d

Notable South Australians at different periods of their lives: [Tom Coward] Quiz and the lantern, 28 July 1898, p. 4

Clyne, Robert Colonial blue: a history of the South Australian police force, 1836-1916 Netley, S.A.: Wakefield Press, 1987

Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Edition: Warburton, Peter Egerton (1813 - 1889)

South Australian Police Historical Society

Tom Coward and Benjamin Pickworth Hunt 1890 B 61906