At 16 he left school to become a local reporter with the Dundee newspaper, magazine and comic publishers DC Thomson.

During his time as Commonwealth Secretary he had responsibility for trying to reach a settlement of the Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) question and for implementing sanctions against the regime there.

[4] In 1985 he was invited to deliver the MacMillan Memorial Lecture to the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland; he chose "Does Public Broadcasting Have a Future?

[5] After moving with his wife, Grace, to Charing, Kent, Thomson held the position of Party President, for Ashford Liberal Democrats, from 1999 to 2006.

[6][7] He was survived by his wife, Grace (née Jenkins), Lady Thomson (1925–2014),[8] and their two daughters, Ailsa and Caroline,[9] the former chief operating officer of the BBC.