William T Thompson

William T. Thompson 1812-82, American humorist and editor, b. Ravenna, Ohio. He was founder and editor of the Savannah Morning News, which became one of the most prominent newspapers in Georgia. In his editorials he often defended slavery. He is remembered for his use of dialect in short stories about life among the Georgia Crackers. They are collected in several volumes, including Major Jones's Courtship (1843) and Chronicles of Pineville (1845).

Thompson, William (1775–1833), of Roscarbery, Co. Cork, socialist and feminist writer. The son of a rich merchant, John Thompson, a former mayor of Cork, he inherited 1,400 acres and several merchant ships in 1814. Writing that he felt ashamed of living off ‘the produce of the efforts of others’, Thompson gave his tenants very favourable leases, attracting the ire of his own class. A leading advocate of the co‐operative movement, he wrote many long treatises which were clear espousals of scientific socialism well ahead of Marx. With his lover Anna Wheeler (1785–1848), Thompson wrote the eloquently titled An Appeal of One Half of the Human Race, Women, against the Pretensions of the Other Half, Men, to Restrain them in Political and thence in Civil and Domestic Slavery (1825). His will, leaving everything to the co‐operative movement, was overturned by relatives after a lengthy law‐suit.

Peter Collins

Turnbull, William (1922–1997). British sculptor and painter, born in Dundee. He left school at 15 and worked as an illustrator on detective and love stories for the local publishing house of D. C. Thompson whilst studying art at evening classes. After serving as an RAF pilot in the Second World War he studied at the Slade School, 1946–8, then in 1948–50 lived in Paris, where he saw a good deal of his fellow Scot and Slade student Paolozzi and met such illustrious figures as Brancusi and Giacometti. In 1950 he had his first exhibition (a joint show with Paolozzi) at the Hanover Gallery, London. Since then he has had numerous one-man exhibitions (including a retrospective at the Tate Gallery in 1973) and has been included in many important group shows. As a sculptor Turnbull moved from Surrealistic and primitivist works to painted steel geometrical constructions in the manner of Caro. As a painter he was one of the first British artists to work in the manner of the American Colour Field Painters (he helped to organize the Situation exhibition in 1960). In 1960 he married the Singapore-born sculptor Kim Lim (1936– ).