Career
Educated at Felsted School and Cambridge University, Thompson was a schoolmaster, teaching physics. From 1960 to 1965, he taught at the Manchester Grammar School and from 1965 to 1983 at Gresham's School, Holt. Thompson fought Bradford North in the February and October 1974 elections, being beaten by Labour's Ben Ford each time.
In 1979 he was defeated at Barrow-in-Furness. He held the seat until his retirement in 1997.