Address given at Burton Joyce Methodist Church on Friday 15^th of October, 2010, by the Revd. Dr. David Monkton, at the thanksgiving service for

Brian William Thompson

Today we give thanks for the life of Brian Thompson. He was born in Sheffield in 1936. When we know a little about his father and things that happened early in Brian’s childhood we begin to understand some of the things that motivated him. His father was a fishmonger, who was poorly educated, and had a rather   Dell boy style approach to life. During the war for instance he was involved in smuggling rolex watches into the country in crab shells.

Tragically Brian’s sister Anita died when she was just 5 years old. She was hit by a lorry driver on his first day after passing his test. Brian was aged just nine. Brian’s earlier years were not at all easy.

He was determined to break free from a predetermined career in selling fish, and decided to concentrate on being a student., and he adapted  to this life exceptionally well. He graduated with a first class honours degree at Leeds University, and in the following year   he obtained another  first class honours degree, in Zoology. He was also a keen middle distance runner; and at the time that Roger Bannister was breaking records, Brian was in the same competitive field, running the mile himself  in just over four minutes.

In the notes that the family have passed on to me it reads. ‘Many potential suitors for his daughters became acquainted with his athletic prowess. As a prerequisite for courtship they would be taken on a 5 mile run. Brian would always win and thus the pecking order was established.’

In his early twenties, he was very devoted and dedicated to the scholastic world - however he was suddenly swept off his feet when he met Maria, and quickly within a few years of their marriage they had their four children - Catherine, Fiona, Adrian and David.

Brian had been a child with a workaholic father. He himself was determined to give to his own children all that was denied him.

As a father he was an enthusiast.

His children enjoyed a childhood of walking up mountains and invariably getting lost. There was Bird watching, bird ringing, foraging for fungi and foods from the hedgerows, and many years of throwing Frisbees’.

Like his father he always had an eye for an opportunity and his children spent many weekends dredging pond weed from a secret location to  sell to the local pet shop and scouting the village for returnable corona bottles.

He had lived in Burton Joyce for the last 45 years, where the family grew up.

At the age of forty Maria tragically died, and Brain was pitched into not only caring for but stabilising a bewildered and traumatised family whilst coming to terms with his own deep sense of  loss.

In the loneliness of this situation, and at a time of great need he met Diane – a widow who had two sons- but unfortunately some five or six years into their  partnership, she died of cancer.

Brian was a great teacher, a born teacher.

He just had that knack of taking not only a complex subject and making it interesting but meeting people in their worlds and moving them to his.

One example of this was when during the union unrest of the 1970’s when he was asked by the National Dock labour board to run a night school class for the Filliters Dockers and Lumpers of the Grimsby Docks. 

Brian turned up on a cold Wednesday night to a room full of men who had been coerced to show up, most of whom had left school without any qualification and had come to supposedly learn about Genetics!

Brian said

‘Turn up lads for ten  weeks and at the end of it you will be able to breed a super racing pigeon’

 A master stroke because as keen pigeon fanciers he had hooked their interest, those men continued to turn up for nearly fifteen years. Some of them were so bright that they kept Brian on his toes. He ignited learning in them.

Brian always said he was so lucky to have job that he loved doing and most delightedly he marvelled that the best bit was they even paid him for it. So much of what he said came over in a spontaneous way, but in actual fact, he assiduously prepared things beforehand and kept records of arresting things and phrases he wanted to use and say.

His first teaching appointment was at Warwick Boys School, and then he took the post of head of Biology at Arnold Hill School-teaching there for a considerable number of years, setting up a sixth form at the school and then followed a period in University lecturing in further education.

There have been many people whom I have met who have spoken so highly of his ability to enthuse people with the study of biology and many other allied subjects that he has taught. 

Brian continued to teach into his Seventies and when he married Kathleen some eight years ago she was to become very acquainted with and drawn into his latest passion, Philosophy.

At this point I include in this tribute what Brian’s family have to say. They  would like to acknowledge and thank Kathleen for her incredible fortitude throughout their Dad’s illness. 

‘She has at all times put the need to keep his family supported at a greater priority than her own loss of her dear Brian. Ones character is truly exposed during such times and Kathleen is made of the stuff that made Britain great.’

In his retirement, Brian continued to take an interest in the natural world, his garden, his visits to many places to see things of special botanical interest, and to take really great photographs of all these things, which he was keen to show and share with others. He still continued to take an interest in all his former students and friends – and we have such strong evidence of this here today.

No reflections on the life of Brian can be complete without mentioning that one defining trait of his character ................ his laugh. It was so infectious and whole hearted. It said something about his joy of living, and his belief that life should be celebrated.

You could hear Brian coming, well before you saw him. At a meal table he would help to create, just by his attitudes, a great sense of conviviality and conversation – on things light hearted on the one hand, and very deep on the other. You would never leave a meal table without something profound to think about.

We have lost a wise man, a kind man, a generous person, a man of high integrity a wit a great father and teacher, he always had a smile for everyone, a character in the truest sense.

His life was one of many personal tragedies yet he still took the time to chat to people support his family and maintain connections with friends and students alike.

The irony is that a man whose brain was kept so healthy and active which stimulated and touched all around should  succumb to cancer of the brain.

Some of us have also got to know Brian especially through a fortnightly discussion group which has been functioning for many years. He brought to it stimulus, spontaneity, and a fresh point of view. He always kept us on our toes!

Through this group however he also became aware of a faith dimension to his life, which was true and consistent to the road he had travelled, and this became extremely important to him. This is what he said by way of a short taped message for his friends at the Monday Discussion Group, just a few days before he died.

‘Brian here, I’m so thrilled to know that you are still thinking to some purpose to make sense of life... I’m still doing philosophy.

Essentially, all the great philosophers said that the purpose of living was to make a difference. I agree with that. To make a difference in our own lives is to make a difference in other people’s lives. I think that is the essence of Christian action- to build up love within oneself and then to be in a position to offer it to other people. I can’t think of any better way of making sense of living- by seeing ourselves as agents of God’s love.’