Henry Yates Thompson

[1] After graduation, Yates Thompson was called to the bar by Lincoln's Inn but never practised, choosing instead to travel extensively throughout Europe and the United States, during which time witnessed the Second Battle of Chattanooga.

[2] He supported Stead through the controversy surrounding the editor's famous exposé of child prostitution, "The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon" in 1885.

Yet Yates Thompson had little interest in the publishing business, and he sold the Pall Mall Gazette for £50,000 to William Waldorf Astor in 1892.

He benefited from the dispersal of a number of collections, including those from the libraries of Sir Thomas Phillipps, Firmin Didot, John Ruskin, and the Earl of Ashburnham.

He received the Freedom of Liverpool in October 1901, in recognition of benefits he had conferred on the city, including the palm houses in Sefton and Stanley parks.