Roy Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet (1894-1976), Newspaper magnate

Sitter in 8 portraits
Roy Thomson was born in Toronto, Canada. He held a variety of jobs, and became prosperous after setting up his own radio transmitter at North Bay in 1931, founding what later became the NBC network. He started other radio stations, and bought many Canadian and US newspapers. Thompson settled in Edinburgh on acquiring his first British paper, The Scotsman, in 1953. In 1959, he bought the Kemsley group of newspapers, the largest in Britain, which included the Sunday Times. Thompson went on to buy The Times in 1966 from the Astor family. His other business interests included Scottish Television and North Sea oil. He was created a peer in 1964.