Sir Henry Thompson, 1st Baronet

Sir Henry Thompson, 1st Baronet (1820 to 1904) was a British surgeon and polymath who specialised in surgery of the genito-urinary tract, particularly the bladder. Born in Framlingham, Suffolk, he qualified at University College London in 1851 with top honours in anatomy and surgery, and later studied in Paris under Jean Civiale, who had developed a way of crushing a stone within the bladder. He became professor of clinical surgery at University College Hospital and later professor of surgery and pathology at the Royal College of Surgeons. In 1863 he performed lithotripsy on King Leopold I of Belgium, and he later operated on the former Emperor Napoleon III. He helped found the Cremation Society of Great Britain in 1874 and was its first president. He was also a painter, a collector of Chinese porcelain and an amateur astronomer.