Australian Dictionary of Biography

Thomas Francis Bride (1849-1927), librarian, was born on 1 October 1849 at Cork, Ireland, son of Henry Nelson Bride and his wife Ellen, née Bourke. He was brought to Victoria while 'too young to walk'. After brief schooling at Hawthorn he attended St Patrick's College, East Melbourne. In 1870 he enrolled as a law student at the University of Melbourne and after winning scholarships and exhibitions graduated with first-class honours in 1873. Six years later he qualified as doctor of laws, the third Victorian student to do so. Bride served as assistant librarian at the university in 1873-81.

When the position of librarian at the Melbourne Public Library became vacant, Bride was selected from thirty-seven applicants and appointed in August 1881. He brought enthusiasm and method to his new task. The library had a large and well-chosen collection of 115,000 volumes but they were poorly arranged and inadequately catalogued. Bride had no qualified staff to assist him and insufficient accommodation for his growing bookstock. Within a few years he had made great improvements in the administration and working of the institution. His officers were carefully trained and were increased in numbers. A new scheme of classification gave ready access to any volumes required, and the library's services to the public were developed and extended. In 1895 after fourteen years of hard work Bride resigned from the library to become curator of estates of deceased persons. He retired to private life in November 1909.

Bride's official duties as librarian and law officer did not prevent him from engaging vigorously in many other activities. In the Victorian general elections of 1880 he unsuccessfully stood for North Melbourne as a Conservative. In 1885 he was appointed a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He was a member of the councils of the University of Melbourne from 1887 and of the Working Men's College for many years, serving as its president in 1912. As a member of the Antarctic Exploration Committee in 1886 he contributed to the recognition of Australia's interests in the Antarctic, with special reference to the development of the whaling industry and the use of guano deposits. He was an impartial but understanding chairman of the board appointed by the government in 1896 to investigate the conditions of white and Chinese labour in the furniture trade. During his term as librarian at the Public Library he edited the Letters from Victorian Pioneers, a collection of colonial reminiscences gathered by Lieutenant-Governor La Trobe but not published by the library trustees until 1898. Bride founded the Technical Schools Association in Melbourne and was secretary and a voluminous writer for the Referendum League. His energies continued to find scope in these and other public movements almost to the end of his life.

In 1924 Bride made an extended visit to Britain and Europe. Soon after his return to Melbourne he suffered a short illness and died on 7 April 1927. He was buried in the Roman Catholic section of the Boroondara cemetery, Kew. He was twice married: first to Mary Clare Newton by whom he had five children, and second to Charlotte Meagher O'Brien. He was survived by Charlotte and two sons of his first marriage.

Bride had high attainments, a clear mind, wide interests and great energy. He was tall and slender in person, quiet and courteous in manner, but warm hearted and genial among those who knew him well.