He then attended the Royal Technical College in Glasgow, training as a Mechanical Engineer.
[1] In the Second World War from 1940 he was seconded as Deputy Chief Designer of the Projectile Development Establishment at Aberporth on the Welsh coast, becoming Director of the Establishment in 1943.
He was one of the moving figures of giving the college university status (through a major expansion) which came to fruition in August 1964, the college thereafter being known as Strathclyde University and Thompson serving as Vice Principal.
His proposers were Patrick Dunbar Ritchie, Sir Samuel Curran, George Hibberd and Donald Pack.
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