Thomas Ellison - Professional and Personal Life

Professional and Personal Life

Outside of his involvement in rugby, Ellison was a lawyer, and was one of the first Māori admitted to the bar. He practised as an interpreter for the Land Courts, as a solicitor, and later worked as a barrister in the practises of Brandon & Hislop in Wellingon. Ellison was also involved in politics, and stood unsuccessfully for the Southern Maori parliamentary seat several times against Tame Parata, as well as working for government consideration of Ngāi Tahu land claims. He married Ethel May Howell on 22 March 1899; the couple had three children, only one of whom survived infancy, daughter Hinemura who died in 1989. In 1904 Ellison was struck down with tuberculosis, and was admitted to Porirua Lunatic Asylum, before dying on 2 October that same year. Ellison was buried in Otakou, Otago Heads, following the original plan of a burial at Karori. Representatives of Ellison's parents intercepted the body in Porirua, and his wife and Public Trustee then agreed for him to be buried at Otakou. There his gravestone reads "One of the greatest rugby footballers New Zealand ever possessed".

Ellison's influence on New Zealand rugby is such that Māori researcher Malcolm Mulholland stated he was "arguably the player who contributed the most to New Zealand rugby". In 1916, when discussing the question of the greatest player New Zealand had produced, the pseudonymous "Touchline" wrote: "I am prepared to say that the late a T. R. Ellison... was the greatest of them all." He went on to say:

When occasion demanded, T R. Ellison could take a place among the backs—half or three-quarter—I and was a fine coach. He could not only plan out great, deep, wily, and pretty schemes, but personally carry them through to triumphant execution. He could take his place in the front of a scrummage, and hook the ball with the best of them; his tremendous strength enabled him to burst through a pack, and then, when he was clear of the wreckage, and was well in the open, he was a perfect demon.

Ellison has been inducted into the Māori Sports Hall of Fame, and in 2005 was listed as one of New Zealand's Top 100 History Makers. The New Zealand Native Football team was inducted into the International Rugby Board Hall of Fame in 2008, the first side awarded the honour.