harold warris thompson

Sir Harold Warris Thompson was an English physical chemist. He was born on 15 February 1908 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. He was an avid football player, and was Chairman of the Football Association. He received many honours, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1946. He was made a chevalier of the Lgion dhonneur in 1971 and was knighted in 1968. He married Grace Penelope Stradling in 1938 and had two children. He died on 31 December 1983.

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