"He was timorous, changeable, inconsistent, erratic, gloomy and absorbed, then sparkling and excitable by turns, his f…"

"He sought rest only in perpetual physical motion."

"His nervous instability was painful, his poses perpetual and his vanity colossal."

"He was petulent as a child, irritable to a degree at the least criticism, oscillating between apparently unaffected i…"

"He had apparently no illusions, no passions and no pre dominantly great ideals. He had the official manner, imperturb…"

"A splendidly built man of towering height but never unwieldy, with a high forehead, keen eyes glittering through his …"

"His colonial career though brilliant in parts was, on the whole, unsatisfactory, largely owing to British prejudice a…"

"Sir Thomas was a man of business, stout, florid, choleric, curt and Cromwellian."

"In public life ... he had but one aim — his own aggrandisement."

"Though a Tasmanian born he appealed at all times to the narrowest Sydney and New South Wales provincialism by the pet…"