George Pirie Thomson

His parents were Robert Brown Thomson, a civil engineer in the public works department, and May Forbes, daughter of William R.

[1] In 1903 he was rated midshipman and appointed to the cruiser HMS Hyacinth which was then the flagship of rear-admiral George Atkinson-Willes.

The next day a landing party went ashore: one hundred and twenty-five men of the Hampshire Regiment accompanied more than 300 sailors, commanded by Captain Horace Hood.

[3] The fort, which was defended "by rifle fire and mixed iron missiles from two old cannon", was captured with a loss of three killed and twelve wounded.

[3] At the beginning of the First World War he was serving on the battleship HMS St. Vincent of the Grand Fleet as a watch-keeper and German interpreter.

Also, by this time, he had qualified as an interpreter in four languages, was selected for the Staff Course and was then appointed to the Admiralty for the Naval Intelligence Division.

[3] Thomson was appointed to the flagship HMS Revenge as staff-officer (operations) and in 1927 he was promoted to captain while in command of the Sixth Submarine Flotilla at Portland.

As events unfolded the censor's office was inundated with requests and when, two days later, the liner SS Athenia was sunk the system was pushed to breaking point.

"[7] Thomson later recalled in his book, Blue Pencil Admiral, that he had had "an experience of the Press which was limited to reading my newspaper at the breakfast table".

[10][12] Thomson would not tolerate censorship that ran counter to common sense even when this breached the letter of the D notices and he was always ready to explain why a particular decision had been made.

[1][2] Material relating to Thomson is stored in Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives of King's College London.