George Pirie Thomson

George Pirie Thomson , CBE , CB (* 1887 , † 1965 ) was a British Rear Admiral . During the Second World War he was the chief press censor in England.

Thomson was the son of Major J. Thomson. From 1908 to 1932 he served on submarines in the Royal Navy and participated in the First World War . On June 16, 1921, he married Octavia Cayley.

From 1937 Thomson was a second member of the Naval Board in Australia until he was retired in 1939 after 37 years of service. Navy Minister Winston Churchill reactivated him after the German invasion of Poland for the Ministry of Information , where the censorship department was set up under Vice Admiral C. V. Usborne from June 1939. After Usborne returned to the construction of destroyers and Cyril Radcliffe also gave up the function in December 1940, Thomson took it over until the end of the war.

Thomson material is stored in the Liddell Hart Center for Military Archives at King's College London .

Works

• Blue pencil admiral: the inside story of the press censorship . Sampson, Low, Marston & Co, London 1947.
• Submarines . The Mechanical Age Library series. Frederick Muller, London 1959.