Subject

Born Denbighshire, Wales, son of A. G. Thompson and Bertha Evelyn Thompson. In 1938 he married Sara Elizabeth Ninita Forbes, daughter of Sir Victor Courtenay Walter Forbes.

A person with this name is credited with a book, 'The Chinchilla Giganta Rabbit' but we can't be certain that is our man.

Our colleague, Andrew Behan, was unable to trace any person called Hugh Gyle-Thomson (without a 'p' in the surname) who was born in 1913 and died in 1972, but was able to find a Hugh Herbert Gyle-Thompson (1913-1972). His researches show that his birth was registered in the 4th quarter of 1913 in the Ruthin, Denbighshire, registration district as Hugh Herbert Thompson. He was born on 27 May 1913 the son of Arthur Gladstone Thompson (1869-1936) and Bertha Evelyn Thompson née Gile (1877-1969).

His name seems to have been modified over the years. For example, when his father died on 23 February 1936 and probate was granted on his £66,243-16s-1d estate, one of the executors was shown as Hugh Gile Thompson. Similarly, when he left Liverpool accompanied by his mother on 26 August 1936 aboard the S.S. Reina Del Pacifico of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company bound for  Mollendo, Peru, he was recorded on the ships manifest as Hugh Gile-Thompson.

In 1938 he married Sara Elizabeth Ninita Forbes and they had three children: Donita Helen Elizbeth Gyle-Thompson (b. 15 September 1939), Sara Anne Robina Gyle-Thompson (3 July 1941-24 March 1985) and David Courtenay Gladstone Gyle-Thompson (b.25 September 1943).

In the 1939 England and Wales Register he is shown an wholesale manager - ice cream at 27 Herga Court, Sudbury Hill, Harrow using the name Hugh Gyle-Thompson and in 1951 telephone directories he is similarly listed as Hugh Gyle-Thompson at 'Alderstead' Fulmer Way, Gerrards Cross. By the time of the 1964 telephone directories he is listed in the same manner but at Old Quarry House, North Park, Gerrards Cross.

Probate records listed him as Hugh Herbert Gyle-Thompson, otherwise Hugh, of Old Quarry House, North Park, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, who died, aged 59 years, on 28 August 1972. Probate was granted on 3 November 1972 and his effects totalled £126,403. He was cremated at Chilterns Crematorium, Whielden Lane, Amersham, HP7 0ND, where his name is shown in their Book of Remembrance.