THOMAS LISTER c1800–1842
Thomas Henry Lister, the first registrar general, was born in a well-to-do family at Armitage Park near Lichfield in Staffordshire, and attended(1826) and (1832). He married Lady Maria Theresa Villiers in 1830; she was herself to become a significant writer. In 1830 Listerâs short story was an early example of science fiction, featuring a future of machines instead of horses, an automatic letter-writer and a robot porter powered by steam. His interest in progress might have helped him in 1836 to the post of registrar general of births, marriages and deaths. It can have done no harm in gaining a public appointment that he was the brother-in-law of Lord John Russell, the home secretary. Lister oversaw the census and was featured in it himself, with his wife, two children, mother-in-law and 10 servants. However, he was not to see publication of the results because he died of tuberculosis on 5 June 1842 at Kent House, Knightsbridge, the home of his relative the Earl of Morley. He was either 41 or 42; the work he did meant that such uncertainty around ages was no more.
