Thompson's papers in the ‘Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society,’ eighteen in number, deal with many agricultural topics, particularly with questions relating to implements.
There is a portrait of him at Kirby Hall, in the uniform of a captain in the Yorkshire hussar yeomanry, and an enlarged photograph of him in the rooms of the Royal Agricultural Society.
[Journal of the Royal Agricultural Soc. passim, especially xi. 68, 1850, and 2nd ser. x. 519, 1874 (Biography by Earl Cathcart); Ann. Register, 1874, p. 153; Agricultural Gazette, 1874, p. 658; see also pp. 273 and 1435 of same volume; Mark Lane Express, 25 May 1874; private information; Hansard passim.]
THOMPSON, HENRY (1797–1878), miscellaneous writer, was born in Surrey in 1797. He was admitted to St. John's College, Cambridge, as a pensioner on 29 April 1818, graduating B.A. in 1822, and proceeding M.A. in 1825. In 1820 he competed for Sir William Browne's medal, receiving an extra prize for a Latin ode, and in 1824 he obtained the first members' prize for a Latin essay. He was ordained deacon in 1823 and priest in 1827. After being successively curate of St. George's, Camberwell, Surrey (1824–7), of St. Mary's, Salehurst, Sussex (1827–8), and of Wrington, Somerset (1828–1853), he was appointed vicar of Chard, Somerset, on 14 Sept. 1853, where he resided till his death on 29 Nov. 1878. He left two sons—Henry Bell, vicar of Tatworth, and Christopher.
Thompson was a man of very conservative instincts. In the words of his friend, Edward Augustus Freeman, whom he first met at Hannah More's house at Barley-Wood, he ‘seemed to look at everything in 1878 with exactly the same eyes with which he looked on things in 1839.’ At the same time, Freeman adds, ‘he showed us that past generation in its best colours.’ He was a good classical scholar and knew Hebrew and German.
Thompson was the author of:
- ‘Davidica: twelve practical Sermons on the Life of David,’ London, 1827, 8vo.
- ‘Pastoralia: a Manual of Helps for the Parochial Clergy,’ London, 1830, 12mo; 2nd edit. 1832.
- ‘The Life of Hannah More,’ London, 1838, 8vo.
- ‘Concionalia: Outlines of Sermons for the Christian Year,’ London, 1853, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1862; 2nd ser. 1871.
He published editions of Horace (1853, 8vo), and Virgil (1854, 8vo; 3rd edit. 1862), and also contributed most of the classical articles to the ‘Encyclopædia Metropolitana’ (1824), several of which he afterwards published separately. In 1845 he translated Schiller's ‘Maid of Orleans’ and ‘William Tell,’ and in 1850 he edited a volume of ‘Original Ballads by living Authors,’ to which E. A. Freeman was a contributor of nine poems. Thompson also contributed to ‘Lyra Sanctorum,’ ‘Lyra Eucharistica,’ and to the ‘Churchman's Companion.’
[Luard's Grad. Cantabr.; Chard and Ilminster News, 7 Dec. 1878; Stephens's Life and Letters of E. A. Freeman, 1894, i. 23–36.]
THOMPSON, HENRY LANGHORNE (1829–1856), soldier, born at the cottage, Clumber Park, on 21 Sept. 1829, was the son of Jonathan Thompson of Sherwood Hall, Nottinghamshire, receiver-general of crown rents for the northern counties, by his wife Anne, daughter of Ralph Smyth, colonel in the royal artillery. He was educated at Eton, and on 20 Dec. 1845 received the commission of ensign in the East Indian army. On 20 Aug. 1846 he was appointed to the 68th Bengal native infantry, and on 12 Feb. 1850 was promoted lieutenant. He took part in the second Burmese war in 1852 and 1853, receiving a wound which necessitated his return to England. For his services he received the Pegu medal. In 1854 he volunteered in the Turkish army, received the rank of major, and, after visiting the Crimea, proceeded to Kars, where he arrived in March 1855. Under the command of Colonel Williams (afterwards Sir William Fenwick Williams) [q. v.], he gave important assistance in strengthening the fortifications. He distinguished himself in repelling the Russian assault on 29 Sept., crushing the Russian columns by his fire from Arab Tabia. His bravery won the admiration of the besiegers, and, on the surrender of Kars in November, Mouravieff, the Russian commander, returned him his sword. On 9 Nov. he was appointed captain unattached in the British army; on 7 Feb. 1856 he received the third class of the Turkish order of Medijie; and on 10 May was nominated an honorary C.B. He died unmarried at 70 Gloucester Street, Belgrave Road, on 13 June 1856, immediately after his return from Russia, where he had been detained a prisoner of war. He was buried in Brompton cemetery. A mural tablet was erected to his memory in St. Paul's Cathedral by public subscription. His letters, which give an interesting account of the siege of Kars, were published in Lake's ‘Kars and our Captivity in Russia’ (2nd ed. 1856).
