Educated at Ushaw College, Thompson went on to study medicine for six years and failed his final exams three times. It was at this time that he became addicted to opium. He desperately wanted to become a poet and moved to London in the early 1880's. He submitted manuscripts of his work to the editor of Merry England, Wilfrid Meynell, who published one of his poems ion the April 1888 issue. By this time, however, Thompson was destitude. Impressed by his work, Meynell and his wife Alice, the well-known essayist, became Thompson's benefactors. They enrolled him in a clinic to clear up his addiction and subsequently sent him to a monastery to recuperate. In 1893, his first book, Poems was published with the help of Meynell. It was widely accepted by the critics and the poet Coventry Patmore praised it in the Fortnightly Review. Having contracted tuberculosis, Thompson slowly drifted back to opium and the combination brought about his early demise. There was even some speculation at the time that Thompson could be Jack the Ripper, presumably because of his medical knowledge and opium addiction. His output was rather limited and includes Sister Songs (1895), New Poems (1897), On Health and Holiness (1905) and Shelley: An Essay (1909 Posthumous). |
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