| Intro | South African Scholar |
| Was | Historian |
| From | South Africa |
| Type | Social science |
| Gender | male |
| Birth | 1 January 1916 |
| Death |
1 June 2004 (aged 88 years) |
Leonard Thompson (1916 – June 2004) was a South African historian, well known for his seminal work on the formation of the Union of South Africa and the two-volume The Oxford History of South Africa, a collaboration with N.M. Wilson.
Life
Born in England in 1916, Thompson was educated in both England and South Africa, and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University from 1937 to 1939. He was a lieutenant in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, and was awarded many medals for distinguished service. After the war, he taught at the University of Cape Town. Thompson was a professor at Yale University between 1969 and 1986, and was the founding director of the Yale Southern African Research Program, directing the foundation from 1977 until 1994. Thompson wrote many books and articles, including “The Unification of South Africa” and “Survival in Two Worlds: Moshoeshoe of Lesotho, 1786-1870”. In the 1950s, Thompson was a founding member of the South Africa Liberal Party, although he left the country in 1961, in the wake of the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre. In June 2004, Thompson died after a brief illness.