Margaret Thompson MA, MPhil, DPsych, CPsychol, AFBPsS
It is with great regret that The Chelsea Society records the death of Dr. Margaret Thompson on 28th January 2026. All members are invited to her Memorial Service at Christchurch Chelsea at 12 noon on Saturday 28th March 2026, and a reception at the Sketch Club in Dilke St. afterwards. RSVP to thompsonbain@gmail.com
Margaret was the wife of the Society’s Chairman Dr. James Thompson, and had lived in Paradise Walk, Chelsea, since 1982. She successfully led a campaign to oppose major development in Paradise Walk in 1983, and in 2006 she led the “Save Sloane Square” campaign, which was successful in preserving the Square. She became Secretary of the King’s Road Association of Chelsea Residents, and acting Membership Secretary of the Chelsea Society.
Her distinguished academic and professional career began in 1963 as a Posner Scholar at New Hall, Cambridge, where she wrote a Dissertation on “Cerebral Dominance and Reaction Times,” supervised by Professor Oliver Zangwill, the father of Neuropsychology. In 1965 she coxed the Cambridge Coxswains’ eight – beating Oxford on the Cam.
In 1966 she was a research experimental psychologist at Oxford University Psychology Department with Professor Jeffrey Gray on “learning theory, fear and stress” and devised a histological method for oestrus cycle determination. A distinguished academic and professional career then led to her appointment as Honorary Consultant at the Royal Brompton Hospital.
In 1973 she was Lecturer in Psychology, at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School; in 1975 Senior Clinical Psychologist at the Westminster Hospital; from 1976-2000 Consultant at The Priory Hospital, Roehampton; and in 1977 Educational Psychologist for the Inner London Education Authority.
From 1987 until retirement in 2021 she was in Private Practice, and acted as an Expert Witness in many cases.
She leaves her husband James, her daughter Alyson, and her grand-daughter Seraphina.
