Thompson, Lloyd

Lloyd Earl Thompson, photographer, was born in Belleville, Ontario in 1918. He was educated at Belleville Collegiate Institute and Vocational School. His interest in photography became evident when he was sixteen and continued throughout his life. From 1939-40 he was a photographic apprentice with F. Roy Kemp, photographer, Toronto. He was employed by the National Film Board, Ottawa for a short time and then continued his photographic apprenticeship with Robert Darragh, Portrait Photographer, London, Ontario, from 1940 to 1942. He enlisted in London and spent thirteen years in the R.C.A.F. as a photographer. He was overseas during the war and afterwards continued as a Service Photographer doing public relations and official R.C.A.F. portraits and instructing at the School for Photography until his retirement in 1958. For the rest of his life he continued his photographic work both free-lance and as operator of a successful studio. During his life he made camera portraits of many public figures and his portraits have hung in embassies throughout the world and in Buckingham Palace. His book At Face Value contains a selection of 60 of his portraits. He died in 1988 at Belleville.