Thomson, Roy Herbert Thomson, 1st Baron

Roy Herbert Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson, (born June 5, 1894, Toronto, Ont., Can.—died Aug. 4, 1976, London, Eng.), Canadian-born British publisher, owner of The Times of London and other newspapers and communications media.

Early in life Thomson worked as a clerk and salesman, later failed as a prairie farmer and supplier of motor parts, then sold radios successfully and built his own radio station at North Bay, Ont., which brought in advertising revenue and helped to sell radio sets. In 1933 Thomson opened a second station, at Timmins, 200 miles (320 km) farther north. In 1934 he took over an ailing Timmins weekly newspaper and made it a daily; two other radio stations were added, and by 1944 four more. That year he also acquired four newspapers. He moved back to Toronto, and his chain of newspapers grew to include some in the United States, where, in 1960, he purchased the Brush Moore group.

In 1952 Thomson was defeated as a Conservative candidate for election to Canada’s federal Parliament, but, in the same year, he was invited to buy The Scotsman newspaper and went to Edinburgh to run it. Seeing its potential, he also took up the franchise of Scottish television. He left the Canadian side of his business to his son Kenneth’s management but, regarding Canada as his base, continued to expand there into television. In 1959 he acquired the Kemsley group of newspapers, the largest in Britain, which included the Sunday Times, to which he added (1962) Britain’s first colour magazine supplement. In 1963 he became a British citizen, set up the Thomson Foundation, and in 1964 was created a baron. In 1967 he made his most outstanding newspaper purchase, The Times of London. Lord Thomson strove to give the newspaper needed financial stability with an initial investment of £5,000,000. In 1972, in his last major venture, he formed a consortium with Occidental and Getty Oil to acquire a North Sea oil concession.