Thomson, Roy Herbert

  • Wiki: See full biography at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Thomson,_1st_Baron_Thomson_of_Fleet
    • Roy Herbert Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet, GBE (5 June 1894 – 4 August 1976) was a Canadian-born British newspaper proprietor who became one of the moguls of Fleet Street in London.
    • He first came to prominence when he was selling radios in Ontario, and to give his customers more programmes to listen to, decided to launch his own radio station. He then moved into newspapers, becoming as wealthy and important in Canada as the press barons in the United Kingdom. He aspired to a peerage but was denied it unless he moved residence to the UK. He invited British newspaper owners to sell to him, with The Scotsman being the first to do so. He later formed a commercial television company, and gained the first ITV franchise in Scotland, Scottish Television, which today is known as STV. From the substantial profits of commercial television, he bought many titles such as The Times and Kemsley Newspapers which published The Sunday Times.
    • During World War I, Roy Thomson attended a business college, and owing to bad eyesight, avoided conscription. He went to Manitoba after the war to become a farmer, but was unsuccessful. Thomson returned to Toronto, where he held several jobs at different times, one of which was selling radio receivers. However, he found selling radios difficult because the only district left for him to work in was Northern Ontario. In order to give his potential customers something to listen to, he undertook to establish a radio station. By a stroke of luck, he was able to procure a radio frequency and transmitter for $201. CFCH officially went on the air in North Bay, Ontario, on 3 March 1931. He sold radio receivers for some time after that, but his focus gradually shifted to the radio station.
    • Thomson purchased the Timmins Daily Press in Timmins, Ontario, his first newspaper, with a down payment of $200 in 1934 (an equivalent of $3,816 in 2021). He began an expansion of radio stations and newspapers in various Ontario locations in partnership with fellow Canadian Jack Kent Cooke. In addition to his media acquisitions, by 1949 Thomson was the owner of a diverse group of companies, including several ladies’ hairstyling businesses, a fitted kitchen manufacturer, and an ice-cream cone manufacturing operation. By the early 1950s, he owned 19 newspapers and was president of the Canadian Daily Newspaper Publishers Association, and then began his first foray into the British newspaper business by starting up the Canadian Weekly Review to cater to expatriate Canadians living in Britain. He aspired to a peerage, similar to the press barons of the UK, and moved across the Atlantic, settling in Edinburgh.
    • In 1952, Thomson bought The Scotsman newspaper in Edinburgh from its destitute owners. In 1957, Thomson launched a successful bid for the Channel 3 commercial television franchise for Central Scotland, named Scottish Television, basing it in the Theatre Royal, Glasgow. It became highly profitable, with Thomson describing it as a “licence to print money”. In 1959, Thomson purchased the Kemsley group of newspapers, the largest in Britain, which included The Sunday Times. Over the years, Thomson expanded his media empire to include more than 200 newspapers in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. His Thomson Organization became a multinational corporation, with interests in publishing, printing, television, and travel. In 1966, Thomson bought The Times newspaper from members of the Astor family.
  • Second Great Grandson of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=8381
  • Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/247883761/roy-thomson