Background
Harold Thompson was born in Wombwell, Yorkshire, the son of William Thompson, a colliery executive, and Charlotte Emily.
Harold Thompson was born 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. Thompson graduated in 1929 and worked with Fritz Haber and Max Planck in Berlin. He returned to Oxford in 1930 after receiving a Doctor of Philosophy from the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin.
He was a Fellow and later Vice-President of Street John"s College, Oxford. Thompson was described as an inspiring teacher. 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
Professor Sir Harold Thompson was an Oxford chemistry don who had taught Margaret Thatcher when she was a chemistry student. Thompson was an avid football player, earning a blue in his final year at Oxford.
He was involved with Oxford University Association Football Club for most of his life, helping to establish the Varsity match at Wembley. He established the Pegasus Club in 1948.
He was chairman of the (1976–1981).
One former FA official said of him, "Sir Harold was a bullying autocrat. He was a bastard. He treated the staff like shit". Thompson played a major role in the sacking of World Cup-winning England manager Sir Alf Ramsey in 1974.
Given England"s failure to qualify for the World Cup that year, Ramsey"s dismissal may have been justified, but the newspapers reported that "the whole episode was handled with brutal insensitivity." British journalist and author Leo McKinstry wrote that "England"s most successful manager would have had a legacy fit for a hero had it not been for the malevolence of the FA chief Harold Thompson." Thompson subsequently ensured that one of the most successful club managers of the time, Brian Clough, never became England manager.
Royal Society.