William Wright Thompson was born in South Africa in 1846. His early life is unclear, though from the recollections of a friend many years later we learn his nickname "Tommy" was first given to him at Cheltenham College.

By the early 1870s he was playing cricket for Mitcham. Indeed he went on to captain the Club.

But his contribution to Mitcham cricket was from much more than playing

The wellbeing of the Green was threatened in the 1880s by an influx of playthings for children and frequent flooding as the drainage was failing. Thompson approached the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, since the Green was then church land, to obtain a lease on behalf of the Club. The Commissioners were unwilling to meet any costs. Thompson helped set up the Mitcham Green Preservation Society to take the work forward.

With his links to Surrey, as a Committee member, he helped bring through Tom Richardson, from Mitcham to a County, and England, player.

He helped secure a place with Surrey for Andy Sandham.

Outside cricket, Thompson was managing director of R R Whitehead Bros, a felt manufacturing company in Mitcham.