Thompson Cooper (8 January 1837 – 5 March 1904) was an English journalist, man of letters, and compiler of reference works.
He became a specialist in biographical information, and is noted as the most prolific contributor to the Victorian era Dictionary of National Biography, for which he wrote 1,423 entries[1] (other sources say 1,422)[citation needed] Thompson Cooper was the son of Charles Henry Cooper, a Cambridge solicitor and antiquarian.
Educated privately in Cambridge, Cooper was nominally articled to his father, and joined him in his antiquarian pursuits.
[2] With his father Charles Henry Cooper he compiled Athenae Cantabrigienses, a biographical work covering alumni of the University of Cambridge.
[1] He played a general editorial role as "compiler of the lists of names to be treated under B and future letters", but his speciality as a contributor was "Roman Catholic divines and writers".