NEW MAGISTRATE

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 63, 12 September 1945, Page 8

NEW MAGISTRATE

COL. H. J. THOMPSON

WELLINGTON APPOINTEE

The appointment of Colonel H. J. Thompson, of Wellington, to be a Stipendiary Magistrate was announced today by the 11-Minister of Justice (Mr. Mason). The Minister said that Colonel Thompson would be leaving for New Plymouth on Tuesday next and would take the sittings of the Magistrate's Court in that district pending the return of Mr. W. H. Woodward, S.M., at present engaged as Revision Authority in connection with appeals by military defaulters in detention camps.

A man of high scholastic ability and wide attainments. Col. Thompson was educated at the Havelock North District School (where he obtained an Education Board scholarship), the Napier High School, Otago University, and the University of London. In 1914 he gained his M.A. degree with honours, and took the first section of the LL.B. course. In 1915 he left on active service with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. While in England in 1917- he was on the musketry instructional staff of Sling Camp, and when later the Rifle Brigade Reserve Battalion was transferred to Brocton. he was put in charge of Lewis gun instruction, being responsible for the organisation of the whole of the Lewis gun course and for the training of all reinforcements going through the camp. Col. Thompson was on active service for four years, during which time he rose from the rank of corporal to captain and company commander, and was awarded the Military Cross.

On his return to New Zealand, Col. Thompson completed the LL.M. course while a member o.f the teaching staff of the Palmerston North District High School, and he also gained the degree of Master of Commerce with first-class honours. Further, he passed the professional accountants' examination, and became a member of the New Zealand Society of Accountants. Col. Thompson came to Wellington in 1927 and practised as a barrister and solicitor m partnership with Dr. N. A. Foden, now of the Crown Law Office. In 1943 he was appointed secretary of the New Zealand and Wellington District Law Societies, a position which entailed a close acquaintance with all new legislation and statutory regula-

Colonel Thompson

lions and required the performance of Court work on behalf of the societies.

In September,' 1940, when the Bth Brigade Group was formed. Col. | Thompson was appointed Commandling Officer of the 29th Infantry BatItalion with the rank of lieutenantcolonel, and letf with the brigade for Fiji in October of that year. He remained there until April, 1942, and on return to New Zealand was posted to Army Headquarters. In Decembex*. 1943, he was promoted to colonel and appointed Deputy Adjutant-Genera?, a position which he has held up to the present time. Apart from his scholastic achievements, and his record of Avar service, Col. Thompson has distinguished himself in the field of sport. While at Napier High School he was in the first fifteen, .and in tennis and shooting teams, and he gained a place in the Otago University tennis, hockey, and athletic teams. He played firstgrade Rugby in Dunedin for the Pirates Club, and won Otago representative hockey' honours. Col. Thompson is also well known in tennis circle.-;, having been the Manawalu delegate to the New Zealand Tennis Council for many years. Pie played in the Manawatu representative tennis team for four or five years, and on one occasion won the Hawke's Bay mixed doubles championship with Mrs. Gardiner.

The bronze medal of Ihe Royal Humane Society was presented to Col. Thompson for saving the life of a young man who was carried out to sea near-Napier.