Early life Thompson was born in
Murree, in pre-partition
India (now
Pakistan), where his father worked in public health. He returned to the UK to be educated at
Marlborough College and then learn about
natural sciences at
Pembroke College, Cambridge.
Second World War His time at Cambridge was interrupted by the outbreak of the
Second World War. He volunteered for the army at a Reception Unit in
Reading in September 1939. After initially assisting his father (who by then was the
Medical Officer of Health for
Lambeth) in setting up casualty clearing stations, he volunteered to join the
Royal Tank Regiment. Before his call up in 1941, Thompson had joined the
Local Defence Volunteers and then the
Home Guard. He was sent to
Sandhurst for officer training, and was commissioned into the
4th (Queen's Own) Hussars. After transferring to the
4th County of London Yeomanry, he sailed to join the
7th Armoured Division (Desert Rats) in North Africa and took part in
Operation Crusader in November 1941. Involved in much of the fighting across the Libyan desert, Thompson, now a Tank Commander, was severely wounded in May 1942, during the Allied defence of the
Knightsbridge Box. His
Crusader A15 Mark VI had been hit and disabled and Thompson was fortunate to escape his tank with a leg wound. The rest of his crew were all killed or taken prisoner. He was evacuated to a field hospital in
Tobruk, and from there to Cairo by train, where doctors operated to save his leg. Cloudsley-Thompson was then shipped to Britain to recuperate and became a tank gunnery instructor at Sandhurst. He also married Anne Cloudsley in 1944, and updated their surname to Cloudsley-Thompson. He rejoined his tank regiment in time for the
Normandy Landings. He took part in the
Battle of Villers-Bocage on 13 June 1944; his
Cromwell tank was destroyed and he and his crew were lucky to scramble out alive. During July 1944, Thompson took part in
Operation Goodwood, the attempt to storm the
Bourguébus Ridge.
Naturalist After the war, Cloudsley-Thompson returned to Cambridge to complete his studies, gaining his
MA and PhD. He then became a lecturer in zoology at
King's College London. However, he still harboured a close interest in the desert he had fought across. In 1960, he became professor of zoology at the
University of Khartoum, and keeper of the Sudan Natural History Museum. Following a short spell in 1969 as visiting professor at the
University of Albuquerque in the deserts of New Mexico, he and Anne returned to London in 1972. He was appointed professor of zoology at
Birkbeck College, University of London, and remained with the university until he retired in 1986, when he was made emeritus professor. Cloudsley-Thompson was also a former chairman of the
British Naturalists' Association between 1974 and 1983, and the recipient of the Association's highest honour for outstanding services to the understanding of natural history, the
Peter Scott Memorial Award in 1993. By the time of his death in October 2013, he had written over 50 books on desert fauna and the adaptations used by its wildlife such as spiders and scorpions. His wife Anne predeceased him in 2012. ==Works==