Deaths

HAROLD THOMPSON (A53) 25th August 1935 – 16th May 2017 was an Ampleforth man through and through.  His love and respect of the place was quiet but immense.  Born in 1935 into a farming family in the North East of England, he did not attend the prep school, which was not yet established, but made sure it was an experience his two sons did not miss out on.

Harold's years at Ampleforth may sometimes have left his teachers in quiet despair: one of his claims to fame was his prime placing on the leaderboard for amount of disciplines received each week.  But although his sense of humour was not always appreciated (a favourite story of his school days was placing 'out of order' signs on all the boys’ lavatories one Sunday morning, and watching the chaos that ensued with relish), his heart was gold and there was never malice in it.  

The lessons he learned from his school days were not always the ones the monks intended, but they grounded him for life.  And he enjoyed his two sons’ time at Ampleforth almost as much as his own, taking great pride in John (D89) and David’s (D92) school projects and their sporting achievements, attending their cricket and rugby matches with his customary enthusiasm even though he had never bothered to learn the rules of either sport in his youth.

Harold left Ampleforth to attend Agricultural College; he had always wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps as a farmer.  He was well known and much loved in the farming and hunting communities around his home in County Durham, and his large funeral, attended by a range of friends and family from many walks of life, was a testament to his warm heart and good humour.  He approached life with a positive attitude and much enthusiasm and even in his more frail years, his love of people and of his precious countryside remained solid to him.

He married his wife Jane in 1964 and they had four children together.  When Jane died after a stroke in 2014, it left a huge hole in his life, but he faced it with his customary dignity and integrity and earned the huge respect of his family for the quiet bravery with which he faced his loss.  He died after an intense illness in May 2017, but retained his ability to make people smile through every turn of his last days.

He was quietly a Catholic all his life, and took great comfort from the Church in his later years.  It would have both amused and honoured him to know that the monks at Ampleforth had prayed for him in his final days.  He rests at peace now, back beside the woman he loved in the Woodland Burial Site established by his eldest son, surrounded by the woodland he planted himself on land that he also loved and cared for.  He touched the hearts of many with his warmth and kindness and good humour, and is greatly missed by those who knew him.

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Rest in eternal peace.