Gordon Thomson

Gordon Lindsay Thomson (27 March 1884 – 8 July 1953) was an English rower who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics for Great Britain. During the First World War he served as a pilot in the Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Air Force. Early life and rowing career Thomson was born in Battersea, Surrey, the second of four children of Benjamin Thomas Lindsay Thomson and his wife Esther Florence (née Bowker). He was educated at University College School in Hampstead and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Thomson partnered John Fenning at stroke in the coxless pairs to win the gold medal for Great Britain rowing at the 1908 Summer Olympics. Later in the same afternoon he and Fenning were in the Leander coxless four with Philip Filleul and Harold Barker which won a silver medal, losing to the Magdalen College, Oxford crew. In 1909, Thomson was a member of the Cambridge crew in the Boat Race, and won his rowing blue. In 1910, he won Silver Goblets at Henley Royal Regatta partnering John Burn to beat Albertus Wielsma and Bernardus Croon. He was also a rugby player who played for UCS Old Boys, London Scottish and Surrey.