Henry Thompson

Her parents—Margaret Foster and Henry Thompson —were of IrishCatholic extraction, descendants of immigrants who had come to work for the textile mills. They were working class of little education, with distant, painful memories...

Her father, Henry , was a warehouse clerk who lived with the family until Hilary was eleven. She remembered him reading the newspaper, leaving for work every day, and owning a travelling chess set.

A few weeks after the eleven-plus exam, Hilary Thompson (later HM )—with her mother , Jack , her little brothers, and the dog—moved from Derbyshire to Cheshire and a semi-detached house with a bathroom. Her...