William Wardlaw Thompson (date of birth unknown - died 1917) was a South African ichthyologist and zoologist.
Gilchrist, who was the government biologist of the Cape Colony and the honorary curator of marine invertebrates at the South African Museum.
This was based on the large collection of specimens gained mainly by the South African Museum's aquarium at St James, Cape Town.
They also published the descriptions in the Annals of the Durban Museum between 1914 and 1917 entitled "A catalogue of the sea fishes recorded from Natal".
In 1911 they described three new species of freshwater fish in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, and their catalogue, The Freshwater Fishes of South Africa included some 200 engravings, was published in three parts in Volume 11 parts 5-7 of the Annals of the South African Museum between 1913 and 1918.