Matthew William Thompson

Sir Matthew William Thompson, 1st Baronet (1 February 1820 – 1 December 1891) was a British railway director and Liberal Party politician.

He was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bradford in West Yorkshire at a by-election in 1867, but did not contest the 1868 general election.

Early life Born at Manningham in the West Riding of Yorkshire, he was the son of Matthew Thompson of Manningham Lodge, Bradford, by Elizabeth Sarah, daughter of the Rev. William Atkinson of Thorparch. His father was co-owner, with his brother Benjamin, of Thompson's Mill on Sunbridge Road, Bradford, built 1803 by their uncle Benjamin Peile. It was later there where Titus Salt first went into business on his own account.

Thompson was educated at West Riding Proprietary School and Giggleswick School. He matriculated in 1840 at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1843 and M.A. in 1846. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1847, and for ten years practised as a conveyancing counsel.

The couple had three sons and two daughters.

Sir Peile Thompson, 2nd Baronet (1844–1918) Reginald Thompson (1846–1932), army officer William Whittaker Thompson (1857–1920), barrister Eliza married 1871 the Rev. John Vowler Tanner. Bertha Mary (died 1915) married in 1894 Charles James Atkinson (1850–1917), of Bathwick Hill House and Cheltenham.