He was born on 21 July 1868 at Pilmuir near
East Saltoun in
East Lothian, the youngest son and seventh child of Rev Arthur Thomson (1823-1881) a minister of the
Free Church of Scotland, and his wife, Isabella Landsborough. He studied Science at the
University of Edinburgh then did further postgraduate studies at
Freiburg University in Germany and the
University of Berne in
Switzerland, also undertaking practical experience at several marine biology stations. He held teaching posts at
Plymouth and
Edinburgh and then Assistant Biologist at the research station at the
Cape of Good Hope in 1903. He helped assess material from the
Challenger Expedition in
Edinburgh and at the
Granton Marine Station. --> He was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1906. His proposers were
Ramsay Traquair,
William Eagle Clarke,
William Carmichael McIntosh and
Thomas Nicol Johnston. He spent some time lecturing in zoology at the South African College and
University of Bristol before accepting a permanent position at the
University of Manchester in 1910, lecturing under Prof
Sydney J. Hickson. He retired due to ill-health in 1929 and moved to
Cirencester. He died in
Swansea on 28 August 1932. ==Family==