serving in the Home Guard, during a patrol on the River Thames. His obituary in The Times said of him "Personally Thompson was of a fine, robust build, who could shoot, swim or sail a boat with anybody. The Norfolk broads were a haunt of his at one time, and at Oxford he kept a skiff of his own on the river".

Barbara accompanied her husband on site for all four seasons of work at Nineveh. She died on 25 June 1971, aged 84. Reginald, Barbara and