[3] She took up practical engineering when she joined the Leicester Electricity Service, beginning a career in power station development and design.

[4] In 1956, Thompson joined the Associated Electrical Industries John Thompson Group (AEIJTG) and was the only woman on the team designing two nuclear power stations for the Central Electricity Authority, including Hinckley Point B and later the Dungeness power station.

In 1972, Thompson toured Britain delivering the Verena Holmes lectures, designed to encourage more girls to take up engineering as a career.

[6][7][8] Thompson was unable to fulfill the two full years in post due to working in Italy, and was replaced by Dorothy Cridland, but resumed the Presidency in 1965.

[10] In 1989 she published a history of the Women's Engineering Society and in 1990 was awarded the Isabel Hardwich Medal.