Thomas William Thompson was a local historian who deserves to be better known. He was born in Burneside in 1888, educated at Kendal Grammar School, obtained a science degree at Cambridge University and had a very successful career as a science teacher at the prestigious Repton College. Somehow he also found time to research and publish papers and books on a range of topics relating to Cumbria, including Gypsy lore, Westmorland and Cumbrian dialects and dialect tales, and the people and school at Hawkshead during Wordsworth’s time as a schoolboy.

When he died in Ambleside in 1968 he bequeathed many of his notes and letters to the Armitt Museum. Mike Green, a volunteer at the museum, has recently been reviewing and transcribing many of them. In this talk he will give an overview of Thompson’s life and his many achievements, ending with a look at one of the lighter dialect tales from his published collection A Lafter of Farlays.