Background
His mother was Eliza Hayhurst Poole, also of Clarendon.
His mother was Eliza Hayhurst Poole, also of Clarendon.
He was educated at Rugby and at University College of Oxford University.
He is also noted for his study of William Shakespeare"s handwriting in the manuscript of the play Sir Thomas More. Thompson"s father was Edward Thompson, Custos of Clarendon, Jamaica. He served as Director and Principal Librarian of the British Museum from 1888 to 1909.
He set high standards for the staff of the museum, and worked hard to improve the accessibility of public to the collections.
He secured premises at Hendon to house the museum"s newspaper collection. He was knighted in 1895.
He received honorary degrees from Oxford, Durham, Saint Andrews and Manchester Universities, and was an honorary fellow of University College, Oxford. The photographic facsimile of Codex Alexandrinus was issued under his supervision in 1879 and 1880.
In 1916, he published his paleographic study of the three-page addition to the manuscript of Sir Thomas More, arguing that the three pages in "Hand Doctorate" were in Shakespeare"s autograph.
In 1923, he contributed to the definitive study Shakespeare"s Hand in the Play of Sir Thomas More, with Alfred West. Pollard, West. West. Greg, John Dover Wilson, and R. West. Chambers.
He was a founding member of the British Academy in 1901, and served as its second President (1907-1909).