Cicely Thompson

M.B.E. Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

(9 June 1919 – 3 February 2008) was a nuclear engineer.

Early life

She was born Jane Cecily Thompson on 9 June 1919 in Great Ouseburn, England, to James Osbert Thompson and Jane Harrision Highmoor. Her father was an architect-surveyor.

Education

Thompson studied mathematics at Girton College, Cambridge. She took up practical engineering when she joined the Leicester Electricity Service, beginning a career in power station development and design.Celebrating Women In Engineering 1919-2019- The Women's Engineering Society

Career

In 1956, Thompson joined the

Associated Electrical Industries Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) was a British holding company formed in 1928 through the merger of the British Thomson-Houston Company (BTH) and Metropolitan-Vickers electrical engineering companies. In 1967 AEI was acquired by GEC, to c ...

John Thompson Group (AEIJTG) and was the only woman on the team designing two nuclear power stations for the Central Electricity Authority, including Hinckley Point B and later the

Dungeness power station The Dungeness nuclear power stations are a pair of non-operational nuclear power stations located on the Dungeness headland in the south of Kent, England. Dungeness A is a legacy Magnox power station consisting of two 250 MWe reactors which ...

. In 1958, she joined the Institution of Electrical Engineers and became a Fellow in 1986. In 1980, she worked as a project engineer at the Nuclear Power Co (Risley). She was awarded an M.B.E. in 1980 for her work in the nuclear industry.

Supporting women in engineering

Thompson joined the Women's Engineering Society (WES) in 1947. In 1972, Thompson toured Britain delivering the Verena Holmes lectures, designed to encourage more girls to take up engineering as a career. Between 1977 and 1981 Thompson was a committee member of the Manchester branch of the Women's Engineering Society. She was elected president of WES in 1963 and 1965, succeeding

Isabel Hardwich Isabel Helen Hardwich (; 19 September 191919 February 1987) was an English electrical engineer, an expert in photometry, and fellow and president of the Women's Engineering Society. Early life and education Isabel Helen Cox was born on 19 ...

in the role in 1963. Thompson was unable to fulfill the two full years in post due to working in Italy, and was replaced by Dorothy Cridlan, but resumed the Presidency in 1965. She spoke at the first International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists (ICWES) in New York on a panel which included Australian telecommunications engineer Olwen Wooster and attended the second ICWES conference in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

in 1967, where amongst other things, she was taught how to wear a sari by Indian engineer K. K. Khubchandani alongside fellow WES members and engineers

Rose Winslade Rosina Winslade (22 July 1919 – 16 December 1981) was a British engineering manager who became President of the Women's Engineering Society and a governor of University College, Nairobi. Early life Winslade was born in London in 1919 to Alic ...

, Hettie Bussell, and US delegates Louise Davies and Betty Lou Bailey. In 1989 she published a history of the Women's Engineering Society and in 1990 was awarded the

Medal. She was also elected a member of the American

Society of Women Engineers The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is an international not-for-profit educational and service organization. Founded in 1950 and headquartered in the United States, the Society of Women Engineers is a major advocate for women in engineering and ...

. Cicely Thompson died on 3 February 2008, and left a legacy to WES.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Cicely 2008 deaths 1919 births British nuclear engineers People from the Borough of Harrogate Presidents of the Women's Engineering Society 20th-century women engineers Women's Engineering Society Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge 20th-century British engineers