Roy Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet
Toronto, Ontario, Canada | |
---|---|
Died | 4 August 1976 London, England | (aged 82)
Resting place | Toronto[1] |
Spouse |
Edna Annis Irvine
(m. 1916; died 1951) |
Children | 3, including Kenneth |
Known for | Established radio station CFCH (1931), acquired Timmins Daily Press (1934), successful newspaper and other media entrepreneur. |
Roy Herbert Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet,
He first came to prominence when he was selling radios in Ontario, and to give his customers more programmes to listen to, decided to launch his own radio station. He then moved into newspapers, becoming as wealthy and important in Canada as the press barons in the United Kingdom. He aspired to a peerage but was denied it unless he moved residence to the UK. He invited British newspaper owners to sell to him, the first doing so being The Scotsman and he soon formed a commercial television company which gained the first ITV franchise in Scotland, the Scottish Television, today known as STV, which is also nowadays the last ITV franchise not to be owned by ITV plc. From the substantial profits of commercial television, he bought many titles such as The Times and Kemsley's Newspapers which published The Sunday Times;[3] both of these are nowadays owned by News UK, a division of News Corp.
Early life
Thomson was born on 5 June 1894 as Roy Herbert Thomson in Toronto, then part of York County, Ontario, Canada. His father was Herbert Thomson, a telegraphist turned barber who worked at Toronto's Grosvenor Hotel (at the corner of Yonge and Alexander streets – now the site of the Courtyard Marriott), and English-born Alice Maud. The family lived at 32 Monteith Street, off Church Street in Toronto. Thomson's paternal grandparents were Hugh Thomson and Mary Nichol Sylvester. Hugh was one of ten children of George Thomson, son of Archibald Thomson (born May 1749).
Thomson's ancestors were small tenant farmers on the estates of the Dukes of Buccleuch at
Career
During World War I, Roy Thomson attended a business college, and owing to bad eyesight, avoided conscription [citation needed]. He went to Manitoba after the war to become a farmer, but was unsuccessful. Thomson returned to Toronto, where he held several jobs at different times, one of which was selling radio receivers. However, he found selling radios difficult because the only district left for him to work in was Northern Ontario. In order to give his potential customers something to listen to, he undertook to establish a radio station. By a stroke of luck, he was able to procure a radio frequency and transmitter for $201. CFCH officially went on the air in North Bay, Ontario, on 3 March 1931. He sold radio receivers for some time after that, but his focus gradually shifted to the radio station.
Thomson purchased the
In 1952, Thomson bought
In the 1970s, Thomson joined with J. Paul Getty in a consortium that successfully explored for oil in the North Sea.
A modest man, who had little time for pretentious displays of wealth, in Britain he got by virtually unnoticed, riding the London Underground to his office each day. Nonetheless, he made his son Kenneth promise to use the hereditary title that he had received in 1964, if only in the London offices of the firm.
Personal life
On 29 July 1916, Thomson married Edna Annis Irvine (1895–1951) in
On 22 February 1951, Thomson's wife Edna died in
In 1952, Thomson moved to Edinburgh.
As of 1964[7] and 1965, Thomson owned a residence near Port Credit, on Mississauga Road.[8]
In 1976, Thomson died in London, England. A plaque was placed in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral.
After Thomson's death in 1976, his son Kenneth became chair of Thomson Corporation and inherited the baronial title becoming the 2nd Baron Thomson of Fleet. With the Thomson operations now principally again in Canada, the younger Thomson did not use his title in Canada though he did so in Britain, and used two sets of stationery reflecting this dichotomy. In any case, as the peerage title he had was inherited, it did not debar him from retaining his Canadian citizenship, and he never took up his right to a seat in the pre-1999 House of Lords.
Legacy
Roy Thomson Hall, one of Toronto's main concert halls, is named in his honour as the Thomson family donated $5.4 million to its construction. Thomson Student Centre at Memorial University of Newfoundland was named in his honour. It opened 25 May 1968, by the Right Honourable Lord Thomson of Fleet, chancellor of Memorial University of Newfoundland from 1961 to 1968.
Descendants
Thomson's family continues to use the British hereditary title of Baron Thomson of Fleet. A select family tree is shown below:
Roy Thomson 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet 1894–1976 (Baron: 1964–1976) | Edna Annis Irvine 1895–1951 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nora Marilyn Lavis 1930–2017 | Kenneth Thomson 2nd Baron Thomson of Fleet 1923–2006 (Baron: 1976–2006) | Irma Jacqueline Thomson 1918–1966[9] (m. Glenn W. Brydson)[10] | Phyllis Audrey Thomson 1917–2007[11] (m. Clarence E. Campbell)[12] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
David Thomson 3rd Baron Thomson of Fleet b. 1957 (Baron: 2006–present) | Taylor Lynne Thomson[13] b. 1959 | Peter Thomson b. 1965 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Honours
In the
He was appointed
In 1972, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[17]
Arms
|
See also
- Canadian peers and baronets
- Cash for Honours
- Thomson Corporation
References
- ^ "Lord Thomson dies built press empire - Lord Thomson of Fleet". The New York Times. 5 August 1976.
- ^ "Roy Herbert Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson | British publisher". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
- ^ ″After I Was Sixty″ by Lord Thomson of Fleet published in 1975
- ^ ″The Theatre Royal, Entertaining a Nation″ by Graeme Smith, published in 2008
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
- ^ a b c "Descendants of Adam THOMSON and Margaret CRANSTOUN". glendinning.name. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
- ^ Canadas rich troubled Thomson family at The Canadian Encyclopedia, accessed August 31, 2019
- ^ "The Weekly : June 10, 1965-March 31, 1966 - Public Collections".
- ^ Martin, Sandra (12 June 2006). "A man of small economies and grand generosities". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
- ^ "Irma Jacqueline Thomson". www.ancestry.ca.
- ^ "Phyllis Audrey Thomson". www.ancestry.ca.
- ^ "CAMPBELL, Phyllis Audrey (nee Thomson)". www.legacy.com.
- ^ "Taylor Lynne THOMSON". Companies House. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
- ^ "No. 43200". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 1963. p. 1.
- ^ "No. 43267". The London Gazette. 10 March 1964. p. 2189.
- ^ "No. 44999". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1970. p. 8.
- American Academy of Achievement.
- ^ Debrett's Peerage. 2000.
Further reading
- Braddon, Russell. Roy Thomson of Fleet Street (London: Collins, 1965)
- Goldenberg, Susan. The Thomson Empire (Kampmann & Co, 1984)
External links
- The men who made The Scotsman: Part two
- Lord Thomson of Fleet
- Canadian Communications Foundation
- Never a Backward Step, a 1966 National Film Board of Canada documentary on Thompson (requires Adobe Flash)