Harold Thompson (chemist)
Sir Harold Warris Thompson (15 February, 1908–31 December, 1983) was an English physical chemist.
He was born in Wombwell, Yorkshire, the son of William Thompson, a colliery executive, and Charlotte Emily. He was educated at King Edward VII School in Sheffield, then at Trinity College, Oxford, where he was tutored by Cyril Norman Hinshelwood. He graduated in 1929 and worked with Fritz Haber and Max Planck in Berlin. He returned to Oxford in 1930 after receiving a Ph.D. from the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin.
He was an inspiring teacher, and his research interests included chemical reactions in gases, photochemistry and spectroscopy. During the Second World War he worked on infra-red spectroscopy for the Ministry of Aircraft Production, and afterwards continued research in this field. Professor Sir Harold Thompson was an Oxford chemistry don who had taught Margaret Thatcher when she was a chemistry student.[1]
He was an avid football player, earning a blue in his final year at Oxford. He was involved with Oxford University Association Football Club for most of his life, helping to establish the Varsity match at Wembley. He established the Pegasus Club in 1948. He was Chairman of the Football Association (1976–1981). One former FA official said of him, "Sir Harold was a bullying autocrat. He was a bastard. He treated the staff like shit".[1]
He played a major role in the sacking of Sir Alf Ramsey in 1974. "England's most successful manager would have had a legacy fit for a hero had it not been for the malevolence of the FA chief Harold Thompson, said Leo McKinstry".[1]
He received many honours, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1946. He was knighted in 1968 and made a chevalier of the Légion d’honneur in 1971.
He married Grace Penelope Stradling in 1938 and had two children. He died on 31 December, 1983.
References
- "Sir Alf: A Major Reappraisal of the Life and Times of England's Greatest Football Manager," Leo McKinstry, published by HarperSport, 2007.
External links
- Harold Thompson — biography on the Oxford University Association Football Club web site
- Thompson Papers at the Royal Society