John Millar Thomson, 1849 - 1933

Emeritus Professor John Millar Thomson, LL.D., E.K.S., was born in 1849 in the precincts of the old college of Glasgow, where his father, Professor Allen Thomson, LL.D., M.D., D.C.L., F.E.S., was Professor of Anatomy. John Millar Thomson’s family has had a long connection with the University of Glasgow, dating from 1761, at which time his great grandfather, John Millar, was Professor of Law. Other members of the family subsequently held Chairs in Mathematics, Philosophy, Medicine and Anatomy, Pathology, and Military Surgery in one or other of the Scottish Universities. John Millar Thomson was an only child and was brought up in very close companionship with his father, with the result that he was, from early boyhood, constantly in contact with notable people in academic circles, especially as his father was one of 14 professors all living in the old college. As a boy of 13 he travelled with his father in France and Germany, visiting a number of his father’s friends. They remained for some time in Wurzburg with Allen Thomson’s great friend Kölliker.