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English soldier, pamphleteer and statesman.
Originally from Hull, Yorkshire, Thomas Perronet Thompson was educated at Queen's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1802. Perronet Thompson subsequently served in the royal navy, transferring to the army in 1806. He was captured in a 1807 attack on Buenos Aires and briefly imprisoned. In 1808, T. Perronet Thompson was appointed governor of Sierra Leone in 1808, but was recalled by 1810. In 1812, he returned to the army, serving in Spain, and after the peace, in India. He became a lieutenant colonel in 1829 and a colonel in 1846.
Upon his return to England in 1822, Perronet Thompson delved into the political and economic debates of the day. In 1826, in the course of a review of James Mill Essay, Perronet Thompson attempted to demolish the Ricardian theory of rent, regarding it as a faulty and useless appendage of classical theory. He followed this up with his highly popular Catechism on the Corn Laws (1827), which was reprinted numerous times by the Anti-Corn Law League.
In 1828, Thompson became a proprietor of the Westminster Review, the fledgling Benthamite journal, and contributed numerous articles to it. He joined the Political Economy Club soon after.
Perronet Thompson stood for parliament, representing Hull in 1835. He lost his seat in 1837 and, after several failed elections, finally managed to return to parliament for Bradford in 1847-52 and again in 1857-59.
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