Architectural sculptor, born in Belfast on 9 May 1898. He may have been taught to carve by his father, Edmund T. Thompson (active 1885–1911), a stone carver based in Antrim. At the outset of the First World War, Thompson, aged 16, enlisted with an infantry regiment and was on active service until his demobilization in October 1919. He then moved to Mold in North Wales. From December 1922 he was in Liverpool working for Herbert Tyson Smith on the Southport, Liverpool and Birkenhead war memorials and other projects. Also during this period (1924–30), he attended evening classes at Liverpool School of Art. In 1928 he exhibited a bronze statuette entitled Tomorrow? at the Liverpool Autumn Exhibition, giving his address as 115 Bedford Street South (near Liverpool University). He was largely responsible for the architectural sculpture on the India Buildings in Liverpool, designed by Herbert Rowse and Arnold Thornely and completed in 1930. He assisted Tyson Smith with the sculpture on Rowse’s Martins Bank in Liverpool in 1927–32. At around this time he was teaching art in Liverpool. In 1932 he was living at 5 Abercromby Square, again near Liverpool University. He seems to have resented the lack of any public recognition for the work he did for Tyson Smith, and he left the firm in early 1932, establishing a partnership with George Capstick, another employee of Tyson Smith, with the two sharing a studio at 11 Cypress Street. They practised as architectural sculptors in Liverpool until 1939, working for Herbert Rowse on the Mersey Tunnel buildings on both the Liverpool and Birkenhead sides of the river (1933–34) and on the George’s Dock Building (1932–34) which, in addition to architectural reliefs, includes two seated black basalt figures in niches representing Night and Day; they also worked for Gunton & Gunton on the Exchange Buildings (opened 1939). Thompson also carried out solo work for Rowse on the interior of the Philharmonic Hall (1936–39), including gilded reliefs on the landings and in the grand foyer bar, and incised panels in the auditorium. After the Second World War there was little demand for sculptural decoration on buildings, and Thompson moved to London where he was involved with Arcon (a firm of architects), producing models for their prefabs. He subsequently became an architectural model maker for the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, for which work he was awarded the MBE in 1959.
Sources include: information from the sculptor’s daughter, Lynette A Kaylor.
p class=”small”>Bibliography: T. Cavanagh, Public Sculpture of Liverpool, Liverpool, 1997, pp. xiii, 22, 50–51, 80–81, 119–20, 130–35, 159–60, 240, 339–40; Liverpool Autumn exhibition Catalogues; Liverpool Street Directories; Mapping Sculpture; E. Morris and E. Roberts, Public Sculpture of Cheshire and Merseyside, Liverpool, 2012, pp. 30, 34–35, 203; J. Sharples, Liverpool (Pevsner Architectural Guides), New Haven and London, 2004, pp. 33, 72, 151, 162, 170, 171, 175, 234–35.
Emma Roberts, 2012; revised, Terry Cavanagh, September 2025
