Graeme Thomson

Sir Graeme Thomson G.C.M.G. K.C.B. (1875–1933) was a British civil servant in the Admiralty, who served as a colonial civil servant and then governor in several British colonies.

Admiralty clerk

Graeme Thomson was educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford and joined the civil service in 1900, being assigned to the Admiralty. Some years before World War I, following the Agadir Crisis in 1911, he asked about the plans to get the British Expeditionary Force to France in the event of war and found they were scanty. He and Alfred Faulkner were then permitted to compile a register of ships suitable for requisitioning as transports, after they had completed their normal work each day. This they did, thus enabling the British Expeditionary Force rapidly.

Director of Transports

Shortly after the outbreak of war, he received extremely rapid promotion, from a superintending clerk to Civil Assistant Director of Transport in September 1914 and to Director of Transports at the Admiralty in December, succeeding Admiral Savory.