Members will be sorry to learn that Sir Donald Thompson has died. Peter Nisbet, ex CEDA Secretary has kindly written the following:-
"In the 1990s, I was first introduced to Sir Donald when he responded to CEDA who were at that time searching to appoint an MP whom we could lobby and who would lake an interest in our industry and generally be helpful to us in government circles.
This Sir Donald did, with alacrity, for some five years. He really was very helpful to the Association (and to me as Secretary). He was effective and always delivered a positive result to whatever we laid before him.
He was helpful over such matters as engineer's training, NVQs, fighting threatened competition from government agencies and promoted general recognition of our existence from the Department of Trade & Industry.
He championed the CEDA Grand Prix Awards. He chaired the panel of judges; he would put a room at our disposal in the House of Commons where we did the judging and arranged for us to have lunch with him there afterwards. Members will remember that he then always attended our conferences and the Gala Night where he would present the Awards. Then, the following morning, he would organise and chair a "Question and Answer" session that was of real value to everyone.
He was so very genial! I have fond memories of my regular contact with him. I have written a letter of condolence to Lady Thompson, and I understand that there is to be a Memorial Service in due course. I will certainly try to be there."
Sir Donald was born in Harrogate and entered politics in 1967 as a member of the former West Riding County Council and he remained a county councillor until 1975 when he joined Calderdale Council, where he was education committee chairman. He first stood as a Parliamentary candidate in Batley and Morley in 1970, winning Sowerby in 1979.
He was a Junior Agriculture Minister and as a Government whip he was, by tradition unable to directly raise issues in the House of Commons but his position put him in daily contact with politicians and civil servants at the highest level. He dined weekly with Margaret Thatcher during the 1980s, when she was Prime Minister, and went on to share lodgings with former Tory leader William Hague.
Over the years, he acted as a Parliamentary adviser to groups as diverse as the British Nuclear Forum, the National Caravan Council and the National Federation of Meat Traders.
Sir Donald was the fund raising chairman of the Animal Health Trust, was particularly interested in West Indian Affairs and in recent years was director general of the Friends of War Memorials.
He was a butcher by trade, noted manufacturer of black puddings and possessor of one of the broadest Yorkshire accents in the Commons. Behind the roly-poly charm was a tough Yorkshire entrepreneur and a natural politician who could be unexpectedly combative about his robust right-wing beliefs. Sir Donald was knighted in 1992. He was married in 1957 to Patricia Hopkins, who survives him with their two sons. | 
