Thompson, Henry Neville (1885)

updated August 31, 2013

b. March 15, 1861. Armagh Royal School, Dublin; BA, MB, Bch, Trinity College (Dubl.). Army Medical Department, Surgeon August 1884. Hong Kong 1885. Hong Kong Government, Acting Superintendent, Government Civil Hospital (vice Charles John Wharry, sick leave) 1885, (vice Michael Thomas Yarr, also a AMD surgeon) November 1-17, 1887. RAMC, Major August 2, 1896;  Lieutenant-Colonel August 2, 1904; Colonel November 17, 1913;  Major General December 26, 1917. Surgeon General, 1st Army, British Army in France 21 July 21, 1917. Nile Expedition 1898. African War 1900-1901. The Great War 1914-1918. Honor: Queen's Medal, King's Medal, DSO 1902, Delhi Durbar Medal 1903,  Coronation Medal 1911, CMG 1916, CB 1917, KCMG 1918, Croix de Guerre (France), Distinguished Service Medal (USA), Grande-Oficial Ordem Militar de Avis (Portugal).

s/o Reverend Mungo Neville Thompson,  Rector of Clonmany, Donegal, and Charlotte Blake, of Castlegrove, Co. Galway.

[On his second day working at the Government Civil Hospital, Thompson asked the police to arrest the hospital's ward master, John Roy (32), and his predecessor, Henry Watson (35), for stealing from patients in the hospitals two of whom were in dying conditions. Watson instantaneously fled to Canton where he was later apprehended by a Hong Kong police inspector on November 4. He was charged with four counts of larceny and was sentenced to seven years hard labor. Roy was charged with aiding and abetting Watson, but was discharged by proclamation. It was quite ironic that while Roy was being tried, he himself became the victim of theft. The offenders were Ho Abo, Roy's servant, and Ho Awai, a nurse of the hospital; both were charged with theft.]

Selected bibliography: AngloBoerWar.com [internet]. The China Mail, November 5, 1997, p.3, The Government Civil Hospital Scandal; November 24, 1887, p.3, Two of the Hospital Servants Charged with Theft; December 21, 1887, p.3, The Civil Hospital Case; The Charge against John Roy. Hong Kong Government, Report of the Colonial Surgeon for the Year 1887.