Thomson, Henry Wilkieson
Rank: Lance-Corporal
Regiment: 46th Saskatchewan (Canadian) Regiment
Biography: Son of John W. Thomson, schoolmaster ; born Turriff, 13 June 1885. Educated at Turriff; graduated M.A. with Classical Honours in 1907. He was a schoolmaster at Dufftown and Huntly ; but before long left this country for Canada. In October 1915 he crossed to England with the Canadian contingent, and soon after went to France. He was wounded the following year, and killed in action, 5 May 1917. Some-one has written of Thomson as "the Scholar Gipsy of our Northern University". He loved life more than books, and books as they illustrated life. A good companion and a good friend, full of gay high spirits and quaint humour, a constitutional heretic and lover of freedom, he could not cramp his mind in the fetters of conventional school teaching. His passion for the open country of adventure drove him out to look for life in the woods and along the great river-ways of Canada. There he mixed with men of all sorts and still found life "a changeful and a cheerful page” ; until at the outbreak of war he heard the summons of the greatest adventure of all—an adventure which was duty and discipline as well ; and to which he gave his life with that gaiety of courage which had been his always."
Date of Death: 05 May 1917
Burial Details: Name recorded on Vimy Memorial.
Publication: Roll of Service, edited by Mabel Desborough Allardyce. Published 1921.
If you have photographs of anyone listed in the Roll of Honour (preferably in service uniform) or have any questions about this resource, please email memoriam@abdn.ac.uk.