Thomas Purnell (1834–1889) was a British author, best known as a London drama critic writing under the pseudonym "Q".
[1] In 1862 Purnell was recommended by Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy for the post of assistant secretary and librarian of the Archæological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, which he retained until 1866.
Purnell founded a small literary club, the "Decemviri", which included A. C. Swinburne, Whistler, Robert Edward Francillon, and Joseph Knight.
He died after a long illness on 17 December 1889, at Lloyd Square, Pentonville, London.
He was the author of the following: Purnell also edited the Historia Quatuor Regum Angliæ of John Herd (1511–1584) for the Roxburghe Club in 1868.