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Hon. Thomas Howard Fellows

Thomas Howard Fellows (1822-78)

Fellows was best known as a barrister then judge, and also Victorian Parliamentarian.

However, he was a keen sportsman, often rowing on the Yarra River and playing football for the South Melbourne Football Club.

As he migrated to Victoria from England arriving in April 1853 at the age of about 30 years old, he does not appear to have troubled the rowing judges as there is no record of him winning any races.

He does appear as a member of the committee formed to create the Upper Yarra Regatta in 1857. This regatta, for both watermen and amateurs, was well patronised but was not a financial success. The Committee was unable to continue beyond 1959. Lang in his great history of Victorian rowing "The Victorian Oarsman", credits this regatta as providing great impetus to the sport and in 1860, the Melbourne Regatta was created to fill the gap. The Melbourne Regatta was the basis of amateur rowing in Victoria and the forerunner of the Victorian Rowing Association.

Andrew Guerin
August 2025

Sources

Carole Woods, 'Fellows, Thomas Howard (1822–1878)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/fellows-thomas-howard-3507/text5391, published first in hardcopy 1972, accessed online 31 August 2025.
The Victorian Oarsman by John Lang, published by Massina & Co 1919 Melbourne, page 125
Image - Thomas Howard Fellows (1822-1878), by George R. Richards La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria, H2992

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The idea for this history originated from the Olympic Rowing and World Senior Rowing Championship histories written by Andrew Guerin and Margot Foster in 1991, 1992 & 1993 for the Australian team handbooks. Andrew Guerin developed and extended these histories to the current format in 2004 for publication in 2004 and then expanded the site.

Steve Roll has been an invaluable contributor to the website in locating errors and finding Christian names of rowers. His superb work is acknowledged.

© Andrew Guerin – 2004
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