[2] Thompson also wrote a popular physics text, Elementary Lessons in Electricity and Magnetism,[3] as well as biographies of Lord Kelvin and Michael Faraday.

[5] After a teaching apprenticeship he was awarded a scholarship to the Royal School of Mines (RSM) in South Kensington, where he studied chemistry and physics.

In 1879 he gave a paper at the Royal Society of Arts on Apprenticeship, Scientific and Unscientific in which he detailed the deficiencies in technical education in England.

In the discussion, the opinion was expressed that England was too conservative to make use of trade schools and that continental methods would not be applicable in the UK.

Thompson repeated Röntgen's experiments on the day after the discovery was announced in the UK and following this gave the first public demonstration of the new rays at the Clinical Society of London on 30 March 1896.

It was his genius that put its stamp on that society and has made it into the rich amalgam of medical, scientific and technical members that it is today.

As he said in his presidential address to the Röntgen Society: "The pioneers have opened the way into the wilderness; they are now being followed by those who will occupy the new territory, complete its survey, and map out its features.

In 1900 Thompson was involved in the controversial Whitehall attack on Marconi's patents, when the Post Office commissioned both him and Professor Oliver Lodge to produce secret reports.

Thompson remained an active member of the Religious Society of Friends, throughout his life[11] He died in London, after a short illness, on 12 June 1916, leaving a widow and four daughters.

[12][13] Thompson wrote many books of a technical nature particularly Elementary Lessons in Electricity & Magnetism (1881[14]), Dynamo-electric Machinery (1884) and the classic Calculus Made Easy which was first published in 1910, and is still in print.

His scientific library of historical and working books is preserved at the Institution of Electrical Engineers and is a wonderful collection (he was President of the IEE).