Courtauld Courtauld-Thomson, 1st Baron Courtauld-Thomson

Courtauld Greenwood Courtauld-Thomson, 1st Baron Courtauld-Thomson CB, KBE (1865–1954), known as Courtauld Thomson until 1918 and as Sir Courtauld Thomson between 1918 and 1944, was a British businessman and holder of public and charitable offices.

Background

Born Courtauld Thomson, he was the son of Robert William Thomson, of Edinburgh, inventor of the pneumatic tyre, and his wife Clara. After the death of his father in 1873, his mother married, in 1875, John Fletcher Moulton, later Lord Moulton. She died in 1888. He was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford.

Career

Thomson had a successful business career, becoming chairman of the Employers' Liability Assurance Corporation, among other directorships.^[1] In 1914 he was appointed Commissioner for the Red Cross and Order of St John. In 1916 he was appointed a CB and in 1918 a KBE. His country seat was at Dorneywood, Buckinghamshire. In the Second World War he turned it into a hostel for officers in the allied air forces. In 1943, together with his two sisters (one of whom, Elspeth, was the widow of the writer Kenneth Grahame) he presented it to the nation for use by a Minister of the Crown.^[1]

In 1944 he was raised to the peerage "for philanthropic and public services".^[2] Having changed his surname to Courtauld-Thomson,^[3] he took the title of Baron Courtauld-Thomson, of Dorneywood in the County of Buckingham.^[4]

Personal life

Lord Courtauld-Thomson died unmarried on 1 November 1954 at the King Edward VII Sanatorium, Midhurst, Sussex, of which he had been chairman for 32 years.^[5] The peerage became extinct on his death.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} The Times, 2 November 1954, page 6
2. ^ London Gazette, 1 January 1944
3. ^ London Gazette, 11 January 1944
4. ^ London Gazette: no. 36357. p. 593. 1 February 1944.
5. ^ The Times, 2 November 1954, page 1

Persondata
Name	Thomson, Courtauld
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1865
Place of birth
Date of death	1954
Place of death