Lieutenant Eric Dudley THOMPSON
210 Training Depot Squadron, Royal Air Force

Date of birth: 3rd September 1899
Date of death: 17th February 1986

Died aged 86
Unknown
Eric Dudley Thompson was born at "East Mead", Emsworth in Hampshire on the 3rd of September 1899 the son of Neale Dudley Thompson, Managing Director of the Ind Coope Brewery, and Mary Gwendoline (nee Scutt) Thompson of Chestnut House, Highfield Road, Derby, later of "Bicknells", Bingham Avenue, Parkstone in Dorset. He was christened at St John the Baptist Church, Broadstone in Dorset on the 8th of October 1899.

He was educated at Hazelwood School until July 1913 and left due to ill health. On leaving the school the magazine wrote of him: - "Ill health prevented him from coming to us at the proper time, and also from taking a very active share in our outdoor life. This has hampered him largely throughout his Hazelwood career. On the other hand he possessed an unusual sense of humour and knowledge of out of the way things that interest little boys, and he was therefore greatly liked by his intimates. Keenly interested in the deeds of others though no performer himself."

He continued his education with a private tutor before going on to Uppingham School from January 1914 to 1917 where he served as Cadet 899 in the Officer Training Corps from the 21st of January 1915 and where he was described as having: - "worked in munitions squad and has good knowledge of engines".

He applied for a commission in the Royal Flying Corps on the 28th of September 1917 in an application which was supported by Major Bennett, the Commanding Officer of the Uppingham School Officer Training Corps. He underwent a medical examination at Leicester on the same day where it was recorded that he was five feet six inches tall and that he weighed 115lbs.

He enlisted as a Cadet in the Royal Flying Corps at Farnborough on the 17th of January 1918 and was posted to No. 1 Officer Cadet Wing at St Leonards on the same day. He was posted to No. 1 School of Military Aeronautics on the 5th of April 1918 and to the Armament School at Uxbridge on the 9th of June 1918. On the 7th of November 1918 he was posted to 210 Training Depot Squadron and graduated Class D on the 7th of January 1919. He was demobilised at Crystal Palace on the 11th of February 1919.

After the war he became managing director of Tessel & Company Ltd. During the Second World War he worked for the Admiralty at Dartmouth. By the 1950s he was a Company Director living at "The Lawn", Repton near Derby.

He died at Bracken Hill, 6 Bingham Avenue, Parkstone, Poole in Dorset.
Went on to Uppingham School

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