His father’s death at the age of 39 saw his mother return to her family home in the northeast to give birth to Cec before she moved back to Leeds.
Cec was fostered in Warminster in Wiltshire, and then spent the rest of his childhood in a series of orphanages in Somerset, Cheshire and the northeast.. His father died before he was born.
In 1951, the rugby commentator Eddie Waring wrote: "If Cec Thompson is not chosen for the Great Britain squad to face New Zealand, the selectors must be racists.
Cec Thompson played right-second-row in Workington Town's 9–13 defeat by Wigan in the 1958 Challenge Cup Final during the 1957–58 season at Wembley Stadium, London on Saturday 10 May 1958.
[2] He was one of the founders of the Student Rugby League in the United Kingdom, when along with Andrew Cudbertson and Jack Abernathy, he founded a team at the Leeds University in 1967.