OBITUARY NOTICES 211
Percy George Thompson
To those of the writer's generation, it is difficult to think of the Essex
Field Club without thinking simultaneously of Percy Thompson, who
was its enthusiastic Secretary for over 30 years until he resigned in 1948,
and, during the greater part of this period, Editor of the Essex Naturalist
and the Curator of the Essex Museum.
He was always reticent about his private life, and although his
daughter (Mrs. Newbury) has supplied me with some biographical notes,
I think it would have been Thompson's wish that only the barest minimum
should be made public. He was born at Rotherhithe in 1866, the youngest
child of a large family. He entered an architect's office as a boy, and with
characteristic energy and determination, he rose, in spite of adversity, to
become an architect. He pursued this profession until he was about 60
years old. In his latter years he devoted most of his time to the work of
the Essex Field Club and its Museum, and he was, I believe, happiest when
thus engaged. He married Annie Scourfield, a first cousin of D. J.
Scourfield, in 1887, and their married life extended over 64 years. They
had two children. Mrs. Thompson, who was also an enthusiastic member
of the Essex Field (Tub, was a great help to her husband in his work for
the Club, and it was seldom that she did not accompany him to its meetings.
I first met Thompson in 1923 when I became assistant curator at the
Essex Museum, and it was my privilege to serve under him for over four
happy years. It was then that I discovered that his somewhat austere
manner and occasional petulant little outbursts were the thinnest of veneers
covering a genial and kindly character. Later, when I became more in-
timately associated with him in Essex Field Club affairs, I found no reason
to modify my first assessment of him. He was the most helpful and loyal
of colleagues, and did much to make my occupation of the Presidential
Chair an easy and pleasant one.
It was about the time that I first knew him, I believe, that Thompson's
main interest was veering from natural history to archeology and
antiquities. That must not be taken to mean that he was not still an
enthusiastic naturalist. His range of knowledge was enormous, his interests
catholic, and he must have had a prodigious memory. I have seen him
name molluscan shells, or British beetles, accurately to a species, and from
memory, after making his characteristically naive statement—"Well, I
haven't touched the molluscs (or beetles) for over 40 years, but I'll see
what I can do": and what he could do was to point out, with perfect
lucidity, the minutae on which the specific determination depended. He had
a good knowledge of the British lichens, on which he had worked with
Robert Paulson, while he knew the British mosses well. Of birds, not a
few insects, and flowering plants, he had more than an average knowledge.
Whatever he studied, he did so with zeal. As a young man, he had worked
on the rotifers, and with characteristic thoroughness had learnt German
because he found that most of the literature he required was written in that
language. His knowledge of Essex prehistory was wide, and I believe he
was expert on archaeological matters, and especially those connected with
the county. He maintained a life-long interest in geology, and his daughter
tells me that one of her earliest recollections of her father was his classes
in geology and similar subjects, held in his house and well attended,
especially by local school teachers.