Thompson was born in Jamaica, where his father, Edward Thompson, was
Custos of
Clarendon Parish. His mother was Eliza Hayhurst Poole, also of Clarendon. He was educated at
Rugby and matriculated at
University College, Oxford in 1859. He was
called to the bar at the
Middle Temple in 1867. Thompson was made Keeper of the Manuscripts at the
British Museum in 1878. He set high standards for the staff of the museum, and worked hard to improve the accessibility of the collections to the public. He secured premises at
Hendon to house the museum's newspaper collection. The photographic facsimile of
Codex Alexandrinus was issued under his supervision in 1879 and 1880. He was a founding member of the
British Academy in 1901, and served as its second President (1907–09). He retired from the British Museum in August 1909 due to ill health. In 1916, he published his palaeographic study of the three-page addition to the manuscript of
Sir Thomas More, arguing that the three pages in "Hand D" 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 W. Pollard,
W. W. Greg,
John Dover Wilson, and
R. W. Chambers. Maunde Thompson is buried in
Brookwood Cemetery. ==Awards==