Thompson was born in Bristol on 1 August 1914. His family had links to the theatre. Thompson studied at Dover College during the late 1920’s , then went to work in the theatre, joining the Nottingham Repertory Company as an actor and stagehand. He later went to work for a repertory company in Croydon, Surrey.

He wrote plays in his spare time, and had started when he was nine. One of them, Murder Happens? was performed at Croydon in 1934.

His second staged play, Double Error, had a brief West End run at the Fortune Theatre in 1935. An article from this time about the play said he had written 40 plays already, including four in between his first two staged plays. A company worth £10,000 was formed to exploit Thompson’s writings over the next seven years but this appears to have not had a long life.

Thompson later said he had written a part for himself to act in but when management asked him if he wanted to do so he said “of course not” and “the die was cast. Later I decided if I didn’t have the guts to admit I wanted to play the role I should never act again and I never did.