Ralph Thompson (footballer)

Ralph Motson Thompson (1892 – 1 July 1916) was an English amateur footballer who played in the Football League for Grimsby Town as an outside left.

Personal life
Thompson's father John was chairman of Grimsby Town in 1905 and 1906 and his brother Albert also played for the club. Thompson himself was educated at Silcoates School and in 1911, he was working as a trainee auctioneer. Six weeks after the outbreak of the First World War, Thompson enlisted as a private in the Lincolnshire Regiment on 17 September 1914. While serving with the Grimsby Chums, he was wounded in the neck, arm and spine during the attack on Ovillers-la-Boisselle on the first day of the Somme in 1916. He could not be evacuated and was later found and buried. Thompson is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.