Thompson was born in
Karlsruhe,
Grand Duchy of Baden (now in Germany), to English parents. When he was five years old, the family moved to Paris, where he was educated at the
Lycée Saint-Louis. Thompson began a career as a journalist in
Manchester, England, writing for several papers in the 1880s and meeting the socialist writer
Robert Blatchford, who would become his lifelong friend. In 1891, with capital of only £400, Thompson, Blatchford and others founded the socialist newspaper
The Clarion in Manchester, which was important in promoting the
Labour Party. ''The Clarion's
life was always precarious, but among its successes was a series of articles by Blatchford, collected in a volume entitled Merrie England'', dedicated to Thompson. Thompson then turned to
Edwardian musical comedies, revising the libretto of
Walter Ellis's
The Blue Moon (1905) after Ellis's death. He next supplied the text for Courtneidge's
The Dairymaids (1906 at the
Apollo Theatre), which became internationally successful. In 1907, Thompson and Courtneidge adapted
Henry Fielding's
Tom Jones as a
comic opera with music by
Edward German, also at the Apollo. Two years later, at the
Shaftesbury Theatre, he collaborated on the hit musical
The Arcadians, one of the most famous and enduring musicals of its era.
The Manchester Guardian commented that the book "revealed his powers both as a stylist and as a keen observer." Collaborating again with Courtneidge, he adapted the composer
Leo Fall's operetta
Der liebe Augustin as
Princess Caprice (1912, Shaftesbury). Other works with Courtneidge followed, but none of these found an audience. In 1916, his revusical set in
ancient Rome called
Oh, Caesar! played with some success in
Edinburgh, Scotland.
The Rebel Maid in 1921, a return to light opera with Courtneidge, played 114 London performances at the
Empire Theatre. A 1924 play was
The Bohemians produced by Courtneidge. During
World War I and afterwards, Thompson wrote many articles for the
Weekly Dispatch concerning the
Labour movement, the condition of the poor and other social topics. He also wrote for the
Daily Mail and later the
News Chronicle and
The Manchester Guardian. In 1937, he published an autobiography,
Here I Lie - The Memorial of an Old Journalist. Thompson died in London at the age of 86. ==Notes==