After being apprenticed to a grocer in Kinross he joined the Local Defence Volunteers when the Second World War began.

In January 1941 he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, training as a ground crew wireless operator and serving in Iraq.

On 1 January 1945 in an attack on the Dortmund-Ems Canal, Germany, Lancaster bomber serial PD377, after releasing its bombs, was hit by two shells and a raging fire broke out.

He then went to the rear turret which was also ablaze and again used his already burnt bare hands to beat out flames on the gunner's clothing.

Flight Sergeant Thompson began to recover from his injuries in hospital but died of pneumonia three weeks later.