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Born 1851, York, to a Quaker family. His father was a schoolmaster at Bootham School; Thompson attended his father's classes before moving on to the Flounders Institute, a training school for teachers at Ackworth, where he took the London BA degree in 1869. Appointed science master at Bootham 1870-1875; gained a scholarship to the London School of Mines and took the London BSc degree in 1875. Went to Heidelberg where he attended lectures by Robert Bunsen and Georg Hermann Quincke 1876; appointed to the Chair of Physics at University College Bristol 1876-1885. Married Jane S Henderson of Glasgow 1881; published 'Elementary Lessons in Electricity and Magnetism', 1881; selected a Member of the Society of Telegraph Engineers and Electricians 1882; published 'Dynamo-Electric Machinery: a Manual for Students of Electrotechnics' 1884; Principal and Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering in the City and Guilds of London Technical College 1885 -1916; elected a member of the Royal Insitution 1886; delivered the Cantor Lectures to the Society of Arts on the subject of the electromagnet and electromagnetic mechanisms 1890 and again on the subject of the Arc Light 1895; honorary Vice Presidents of the Electrical Exhibition in Frankfurt 1891; elected a Fellow of the Royal Society 1891; member of the British Delegation to the Electrical Congress in Chicago 1893; first President of the Rontgen Society 1897; President of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 1899; elected to the Senate of London University 1900; gave the first Kelvin Lecture at the Institution of Electrical Engineers on the life of Lord Kelvin 1908; delivered the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on Sound 1910-1911; honorary Vice President of the Electrotechnical Congress at Turin 1911; wrote a paper on the development of compass cards for the Proceedings of the British Academy 1914; Thompson was one of the pioneers of ocean telephony and his ideas attracted world wide attention. He is also famous for designing rotatory (now rotary ) converters. Wrote biographies of Michael Faraday and Lord Kelvin and was interested in optics, musical harmony and harmonic analysis. He was convinced of the need for the closest co-operation between science and industry. He was also a keen advocate of technical education and apprenticeship teaching at the City and Guilds of London Technical College. He was an accomplished artist and had some of his paintings exhibited at the Royal Academy. Died 13 June 1916.