Leslie Anthony Joseph Thompson (17 October 1901 – 26 December 1987) was a Jamaican jazz trumpeter and trombonist who moved to England in 1929.
Thompson was born in Kingston, Jamaica, where he studied music as a child at the Roman Catholic Alpha Cottage School.
[1] When he was 16, he joined the West India Regiment and played in their band locally in Kingston movie palaces in the 1920s, before moving to London, England, in 1929 and studying at Kneller Hall.
[2] He had been unable to become a bandmaster in the army because of rules preventing black soldiers becoming officers.
Thompson served in the Royal Artillery on the south coast of England during World War II and was active in dance halls and nightclubs after the war, but stopped playing music professionally after 1954 and later became a parole officer.