Very Rev. Francis Thompson was born in Edinburgh, 15th May 1917 his father having died two
months earlier leaving his mother to bring him up alone; his mother’s family were natives of Elgin where they had been received into the church.

A graduate of both Edinburgh and Cambridge Universities, he was ordained priest for the archdiocese of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, 15th June 1946, and subsequently continued his studies in Rome.

The announcement of his appointment as Bishop of Motherwell was made on the 8th of December 1964 and he was ordained in the Cathedral Church of Our Lady of Good Aid by Archbishop James Scanlon, Bishop James Black and Bishop Stephen McGill on the 24th Feb 1965.

One of his very first appointments as Bishop was to concelebrate High Pontifical Mass with Cardinal Gordon Joseph Gray at the opening of the new St Patrick’s Church in Kilsyth on the 17th March 1965 where he had served as a curate between 1946 and 1948. It was the task of Bishop Thompson to preach the sermon at this Mass to the congregation with whom he was so familiar. This was to become a recurring theme as during his episcopate as he was to open twelve new parishes within his own diocese.

During a distinguished career of 42 years a priest, of which he served 23 as Bishop, he held many posts including rector of St Mary’s College Blairs from 1960 until his appointment as Bishop. Notably he took part in the last session of the Second Vatican Council in 1965. He also represented the Scottish Hierarchy at the first Synod of Bishops in Rome in 1967, and was first chairman of the Scottish Catholic Press Office in 1968. He visited foreign missions in West Africa and South America in 1972. Bishop Thomson was also the founding Episcopal President of The Scottish Catholic Education Commission (SCEC) which was formally constituted in 1972. He was appointed by the Scottish Hierarchy in 1980 to plan the papal visit to Scotland of Pope John Paul II in June 1982. He was also the principle co-consecrator of Thomas Joseph Cardinal Winning, metropolitan Archbishop of Glasgow.

On the grounds that at the age of 64 he did not have the same energy, initiative, and capacity for active leadership as in earlier years, ”Bishop Thompson offered his resignation in September 1981 but this was not accepted until 14th December 1982 when he was appointed apostolic administrator of the diocese. On the translation of Bishop Devine, 13th May 1983, Bishop Thompson moved to Biggar as a parish priest and became Bishop Emeritus of Motherwell Diocese. He died in Glasgow on 6th December 1987, and is buried in the precincts of his Cathedral in Motherwell.