‘He was a vigorous speaker and preacher, with a carrying voice and plenty of appropriate gesture, accustomed to address meetings of men of all grades, while his spiritual influence was unmistakeable’.
[10] Although regarded by the Archbishop of Canterbury as lacking in ‘refinement’, Prime Minister Asquith decided to recommend him for the see of Sodor and Man in November, 1911.
Thompson was a strong advocate of British participation in the Great War, even though he realised some of the horrors that lay ahead ‘Horrible beyond all exaggeration are the agonies of mind and body produced by any war, but no imagination can conceive a thousandth part of the horrors of this great and terrible conflict ....
If we had preferred peace to honour, or safety to truth, or ease to chivalry, the moral characteristic of the British Empire would have been strained and tarnished for ever.’ [12] Thompson's support for the War never wavered despite the enormous casualties and he opposed those seeking a negotiated peace.
This menace to the freedom and progress of the race must be crushed out of existence before the War can come to an end.’ [13] Thompson died suddenly in Harrogate in October, 1924.