Kenneth Thomson, 2nd Baron Thomson of Fleet

Thomson was born on September 1, 1923, in Toronto, Ontario. He was the son of Roy Thomson, the founder of the Thomson Corporation. Thomson attended Upper Canada College and later earned a degree in economics and law from St. John's College, Cambridge. During World War II, he served in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Following the war, he completed his education and entered the family business, working as a reporter for the Timmins Daily Press, then for the next five years, first as a salesman, later as general manager, for the Galt Reporter. In 1953, he was appointed head of Thomson Newspapers, and lived in Toronto for thirteen years. ==Business owner==

His father purchased The Times in September 1966. Thomson moved to London the following year to become vice-chairman, and a year later chairman, of Times Newspapers Ltd. He returned to Toronto three years later, and in 1971 became joint-chairman, with his father, of the Thomson Organization. At the age of fifty-three, Thomson inherited a media empire of over two-hundred newspaper and television holdings, which also continued to reap profits from a subsidiary North Sea oil investment his father had made a few years earlier. He acquired the Hudson's Bay Company in 1979, and purchased The Globe and Mail in Toronto in 1980. In the 1980s and 90s Thomson presided over a number of divestitures, selling The Times to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in 1981, the North Sea oil holdings in 1989, and Thomson Travel in 1998. According to Forbes magazine in 2005, the Thomson family was the richest in Canada, and Kenneth Thomson was the fifteenth richest person in the world, with a personal net worth of US $17.9 billion. At the time of his death a year later, he had climbed to ninth richest, with assets of $19.6 billion. == Art collector ==

Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, Thomson distinguished himself as one of North America's leading art collectors. In the 1940s, he began collecting paintings by Cornelius Krieghoff. In 1989, Thomson opened an eponymous Gallery in downtown Toronto to display some of these pieces. The collection features essential works of over a dozen eminent 19th to mid-20th century Canadian artists, including some three hundred paintings from Tom Thomson (no relation) and the Group of Seven, a hundred and forty-five wintry habitant scenes by Cornelius Krieghoff, a hundred mostly impressionistic, modern landscapes by luminary David Milne, as well as works by Paul Kane, Paul-Emile Borduas and William Kurelek. The lesser-known European Collection includes an assortment of 17th to 20th century British ship models, a series of Medieval and Baroque ivory carvings, and features the 12th-century Malmesbury châsse, an ornate casket which once held the bones of a Scottish missionary. The unprecedented donation of his CA$300 million art collection helped lure Toronto-native starchitect Frank Gehry to design a major expansion and renovation of the AGO, towards which Thomson gave an additional CA$50 million. He also gifted a CA$20 million endowment for gallery operations. ==Retirement==

In 2002, Thomson stepped down as chairman of Thomson Corporation, installing his elder son, David. He retained his positions as Chairman of The Woodbridge Company, the family's holding company, which owned a controlling share of Thomson Corporation. In his final years, Thomson lived at 8 Castle Frank Road (gated estate) in the Rosedale area. He died in 2006 at his Toronto office of an apparent heart attack. == Personal life ==

In 1956, Thomson married Nora Marilyn Lavis (July 27, 1930 – May 23, 2017) They had three children: David (born 1957), Lynne, who changed her name to Taylor (born 1959), and Peter (born 1965). Taylor, a one-time actress and film producer, became known for her lawsuit against Christie's auction house, when in 1994 she bought urns supposedly from Louis XV of France that were discovered instead to be 19th century reproductions. == Arms ==

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