Cicely Thompson

Cicely Thompson M.B.E. (9 June 1919 – 3 February 2008) was a nuclear engineer.[1][2]

Cicely Thompson
A newspaper photo of a smiling white woman with coiffed light hair
Cicely Thompson, from a 1965 profile in The Guardian
Born
Jane Cicely Thompson

9 June 1919
Died3 February 2008
EducationGirton College
OccupationNuclear engineer

Early life

She was born Jane Cecily Thompson on 9 June 1919 in Great Ouseburn, England, to James Osbert Thompson and Jane Harrision Highmoor. Her father was an architect-surveyor.[2]

Education

Thompson studied mathematics at Girton College, Cambridge.[3] She took up practical engineering when she joined the Leicester Electricity Service, beginning a career in power station development and design.[4]

Career

In 1956, Thompson joined the Associated Electrical Industries John Thompson Group (AEIJTG) and was the only woman on the team designing two nuclear power stations for the Central Electricity Authority, including Hinckley Point B and later the Dungeness power station.[4]

In 1958, she joined the Institution of Electrical Engineers and became a Fellow in 1986.[4]

In 1980, she worked as a project engineer at the Nuclear Power Co (Risley). She was awarded an M.B.E. in 1980 for her work in the nuclear industry.[5][4]

Supporting women in engineering

Thompson joined the Women's Engineering Society (WES) in 1947. In 1972, Thompson toured Britain delivering the Verena Holmes lectures, designed to encourage more girls to take up engineering as a career.[4]

Between 1977 and 1981 Thompson was a committee member of the Manchester branch of the Women's Engineering Society. She was elected president of WES in 1963 and 1965, succeeding Isabel Hardwich in the role in 1963.[6][7][8] Thompson was unable to fulfill the two full years in post due to working in Italy, and was replaced by Dorothy Cridlan, but resumed the Presidency in 1965.[6]

She spoke at the first International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists (ICWES) in New York on a panel which included Australian telecommunications engineer Olwen Wooster[9] and attended the second ICWES conference in Cambridge in 1967, where amongst other things, she was taught how to wear a sari by Indian engineer K. K. Khubchandani alongside fellow WES members and engineers Rose Winslade, Hettie Bussell, and US delegates Louise Davies and Betty Lou Bailey.[10]

In 1989 she published a history of the Women's Engineering Society and in 1990 was awarded the Isabel Hardwich Medal.[4]

She was also elected a member of the American Society of Women Engineers.[6]

Cicely Thompson died on 3 February 2008, and left a legacy to WES.[4]

References
  1. "Cicely Thompson". www.wikidata.org. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  2. "Jane Cicely Thompson - Graces Guide". www.gracesguide.co.uk. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  3. MacCarthy, Fiona (27 September 1965). "A Woman in Power". The Guardian. p. 6. Retrieved 12 October 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. Celebrating Women In Engineering 1919-2019- The Women's Engineering Society
  5. The London Gazette, Supplement 48059, 7 Jan 1980, p298
  6. "The Woman Engineer Vol 9". twej.theiet.org. Archived from the original on 3 June 2021. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
  7. Branch Reports, The Woman Engineer, vol 12, pages 40,66,72,108,160
  8. "Women's Engineering Society". Archived from the original on 23 September 2017.
  9. "Proceedings of the First International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists (PDF). Society of Women Engineers. 1964" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 November 2014.
  10. "The Woman Engineer Vol 10". twej.theiet.org. Archived from the original on 8 May 2021. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
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