Obituary: Norman Thompson

NORMAN THOMPSON joined the Department of Physics at Bristol University in 1933, and, apart from the years of the Second World War and a sabbatical year in the United States, he remained there until his retirement in 1975. He had joined the department at the same time as Nevill Mott, and he was the last survivor of those pre-war days.

Born in Stockton-on-Tees in 1910, Thompson won his way through scholarships to Stockton Grammar School and from there to Sheffield University, where he took first class honours in Physics, and then went on to gain a PhD in spectroscopy in two years. At that point he was spotted by the head of the Bristol physics department, Arthur Tyndall, who had a sharp eye for talent, and who offered him a "Chattock research studentship" - created for the purpose - to bring him to Bristol. He became a lecturer in 1937, a reader in 1964, and a professor in 1966.

From 1939 to 1945, he was seconded to HMS Vernon to head a group working on counter-measures to magnetic mines, which occasionally involved the uncomfortable task of dismantling an enemy mine which had been washed ashore near some remote fishing village.

In 1945, on returning to Bristol, he turned his attention to fatigue in metals, and to the theory of dislocations in crystals. In the words of Sir Alan Cottrell, his work was distinguished by "his flair for performing really beautiful experiments and the clarity of his physical thinking". His experiments led to a breakthrough in the understanding of metal fatigue, and to a revival in the study of that subject, and his physical thinking led to the concept of the "Thompson tetrahedron", which became universally adopted as a basis for discussing dislocations in cubic crystals.

Increasingly in his later years, however, his interests turned to educational matters. He was closely concerned with Ucca (now Ucas) in its early years, and for a number of years he was chairman of the Institute of Physics education group. He was particularly concerned with the effectiveness - or ineffectiveness - of examinations, and wrote a number of papers on this topic. He was very conscious of the need for teaching to be effective, and introduced simple forms of teaching-quality assessment (such as student questionnaires) long before they became commonplace, and long before they loomed so large as to be unwelcome.

Thompson gave a somewhat dour impression at a first meeting, and indeed he could be stern with errant students, but closer acquaintance rapidly revealed a warm-hearted and intensely modest individual, with a pleasantly dry sense of humour. He suffered a little, as he said himself, from an over-developed Protestant work ethic, so that, when he began to feel that he was no longer capable of working at the intensity a professor should, he asked to be relieved of his professorial title for his last two years.

To the consternation of some of his colleagues, this request was granted, and he reverted to plain Dr Thompson. Nevertheless he continued to work until well into his eighties, albeit at a reduced level. When he was 77, he published an excellent little book entitled Thinking like a Physicist (1987) consisting of questions selected from Bristol examination papers, designed to test the candidates' ability to use familiar physics in unfamiliar situations, with model answers provided largely by himself. Some were provided by colleagues, but his own were notable for their elegance, conciseness and clarity.

Finally, at the age of 82, he produced a comprehensive history, for internal circulation, of the department that he had served so long and so well.

Norman Thompson, physicist: born Stockton-on-Tees, Co Durham 28 August 1910; Reader in Physics, Bristol University 1964-66, Professor 1966-73, Special Lecturer 1973-75; married 1936 Stella Marshman (died 1969; one son, two daughters); died London 8 September 1999.