William Thompson (physician)

Thompson was appointed house physician in St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin in 1895.^[2] He was elected demonstrator of anatomy at the RCSI, and later was appointed visiting and then senior physician to Jervis Street Hospital.^[1] Whilst serving as the physician-in-ordinary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Thompson became involved in the Women's National Health Association of Ireland, an initiative of Lady Aberdeen.^[2] Thompson was knighted in 1907 for services to medicine.^[1]

Throughout his career Thompson paid particular attention to infantile diseases and tuberculosis, serving as a member of the committee for the 1907 Tuberculosis Exhibition. The resulting lecture, Home treatment and nursing of pulmonary tuberculosis in Dublin, was included in the second volume of three of Ireland's Crusade Against Tuberculosis (1908-1909), published by Lady Aberdeen.^[2]

He became Registrar General for Ireland in 1909 and served until 1926.^[3] Thompson was in this office during the Spanish flu epidemic, and noted that the Irish deaths attributed to it were conservative.^[4] He was appointed Chairman of Census Commission in 1911, overseeing the first census of the Irish Free State in 1926.^[5] He served as the 26th president of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland from 1918 to 1920.^[1]

Thereafter held a large number of other positions, dealing both with medicine and statistics.

Notes

Sources

• Fleetwood, John F (1983). The History of Medicine in Ireland. Dublin: Skellig Press.

• "Thompson, Sir William John" . Thom's Irish Who's Who . Dublin: Alexander Thom and Son Ltd. 1923. p. 247  – via Wikisource.