George Thompson

He was born at Woolwich on 23 June 1804.

His father, Andrew Thomson (sic), served in the Royal Regiment of Artillery before joining the East India Company in 1805.

George Thompson, always known as George Thompson Junior to distinguish himself from his grandfather, was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School. He then joined the Aberdeen office of the London Shipping Company. In 1825, aged 21, he set up his own business as a ship and insurance broker, with offices in Aberdeen. In the same year his name first appeared as a subscribing owner of a small Aberdeen ship, and his shipowning interests rapidly developed. He also traded the imports which his vessels brought back to Aberdeen.

In 1830 Thompson married Christiana Little Kidd (1806–1874), a daughter of James Kidd DD (1761–1834), an evangelical preacher. They had four sons and four daughters. One daughter married William Henderson, who later succeeded him as chairman of the Line and then serve as Lord Provost of Aberdeen, being knighted in 1893.

In 1908 Thompson's granddaughter, Muriel Thompson, won the first ever Ladies' Race at Brooklands race track. In World War I she was an ambulance driver with the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY). For her bravery under fire she received the Order of Leopold II, the Croix de Guerre and the Médaille militaire, and was also mentioned in despatches.

His great grandchildren included Lord Devlin, who was the youngest High Court judge to be appointed in the 20th century and subsequently a Law Lord, and Alison Leggatt, a noted character actress.

George Thompson served as Provost of Aberdeen from 1847 to 1850. The highlight of his term of office was welcoming Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to Aberdeen on 8 September 1848. They were on their way to Balmoral for the first time. This was the first occasion a monarch had visited Aberdeen since 1650. A crowd of 80,000 people turned out to greet her.

In 1852 he was persuaded to stand as a Whig candidate for Aberdeen and defeated another Whig, Andrew Leith Hay by 682 votes to 478. He was an advocate of further parliamentary reform, and associated with Richard Cobden and John Bright in the repeal of the Corn Laws. After retiring from Parliament in 1857, he took no further part in politics.