Edith Thompson (1848-1929) was a historian and lexicographer.[1] She wrote "History of England"[2] the second volume of the "Historical Course for Schools", which was devised and edited by Edward Freeman,[3] with whom she corresponded regularly.[4]
She was also a prolific contributor to the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.[5] [6] Along with her sister, Elizabeth Perronet Thompson, she provided 15,000 quotations for the dictionary.[7] She also subedited the volume for "C" words and proofread volumes from "D" words onwards.[8]
Thompson was barred from university, as a woman, but did receive some recognition as an Honorary Member of the Bath branch of the National Federation of University Women. She and her sister, Elizabeth Thompson (1857-1930) lived at Beaconsfield Lodge in Bath. Elizabeth published a historical novel "The Veil of Liberty, A Tale of the Girondins" (1895) under her penname "Peronne" and "A Dragoon's Wife, A Romance of the 17th Century" (1907) under her own name.
Thompson was the granddaughter of Thomas Perronet Thompson, a notable abolitionist, about whom she wrote a biography that went unpublished.[9]
Edith Thompson is a major character in Pip Williams' novel The Dictionary of Lost Words, where she mentors a fictional goddaughter who works on the Oxford English Dictionary.[10]