STEEL, THOMAS (1858-1925), industrial chemist and naturalist, was born on 8 September 1858 at Glasgow, Scotland, son of William Steel, timber merchant, and his wife Marion Currie, née Kyle. The family moved to Greenock, Renfrewshire, where Thomas attended the academy. From about 1874 he acquired some knowledge of chemistry in the laboratory of Patterson & Ogilvie, public analysts, and from about 1876 with J. Walker & Co., sugar refiners.

Recruited by the Colonial Sugar Refining Co., Steel migrated to Sydney in 1882. He worked as a laboratory chemist in their sugar-mills at Murwillumbah (1882-84) and Nausori, Fiji (1885-87), and in all three of the company's refineries at Auckland, New Zealand, Pyrmont, Sydney, and Yarraville, Melbourne. On a visit to Greenock he married Mary Sinclair Boag at the White Hart Hotel on 18 August 1892 with Church of Scotland forms. Under T. U. Walton he was a chemist at the company's ...

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Australian Dictionary of Biography