"Captain Jocelyn Home Thomson, C.B., H.M. Chief Inspector of Explosives, was born in Oxford, 31st August, 1859, the son of the Right Hon. and Most Rev. William Thomson, Archbishop of York. He was educated at Eton and entered the Royal Artillery in 1878 and proceeded with M Battery, 6th Brigade, to South Africa in March, 1879. Lieutenant Thomson commanded the mounted gunners in Captain Yeatman-Biggs' expedition in search of the King in August, 1879. It proceeded up the coast as far as St. Lucia Bay, which it crossed but gleaning no tidings of the object of its pursuit, it made its way to Ulundi, which it reached on the 29th of the month. It would appear that had the coast not been thus patrolled, the King would have made for the thick forests in the neighbourhood of St. Lucia, as he had, in fact, travelled a considerable distance down the Umvolosi when he heard of the approach of the party. Lieutenant Thomson was selected by the Royal Society to observe the transit of Venus at Barbados in 1882, and was posted to the Royal Horse Artillery in 1885, with whom he served in Egypt for nearly two years. He was promoted Captain in January, 1887, and served as Secretary to the War Office Committee on Explosives from 1888-1891. In that year he undertook a special mission to Canada in connection with Cordite and two years later was appointed Inspector of Explosives, subsequently becoming H.M. 's Chief Inspector of Explosives. Captain Thomson was appointed Companion of the Bath (Civil Division) 28th June, 1907, but died in the following February. During his later years he published four books concerning explosives and petroleum."
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