Thompson Cooper (8 January 1837, Cambridge – 5 March 1904, London) was an English journalist, man of letters, and compiler of reference works. He became a specialist in biographical information, and is noted as the most prolific contributor to the Victorian era Dictionary of National Biography, for which he wrote 1423 entries^[1] (other sources say 1422)^{[citation needed]}

Thompson Cooper was the son of Charles Henry Cooper, a Cambridge solicitor and antiquarian. Educated privately in Cambridge, Cooper was nominally articled to his father, and joined him in his antiquarian pursuits.^[2] He became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries aged 23, and at some point converted to Roman Catholicism.^[2]

As a young man, he was a parliamentary reporter, and developed an interest in shorthand. His Parliamentary Short-Hand was published in 1858. Cooper became sub-editor on the Daily Telegraph in 1861, and the paper's parliamentary reporter in 1862. In 1866 he began a long connection with The Times: he was the paper's parliamentary reporter 1866–1886, its summary-writer for the House of Commons 1886–98, and from 1898 its summary-writer for the House of Lords.^[2]

With his father Charles Henry Cooper he compiled Athenae Cantabrigienses, a biographical work covering alumni of the University of Cambridge.

The Register and Magazine of Biography (1869) was a short-lived periodical venture for John Gough Nichols, covering contemporary biography only, and lasting six months.^[3] A New Biographical Dictionary appeared in 1873, and was subsequently developed under various titles.^[4]

Men of Mark: A Gallery of Contemporary Portraits was a series of photographic portraits, accompanied by short biographies from Cooper.^[5] It was published from 1876 to 1883.

Cooper therefore brought considerable experience to the DNB when it launched in the 1880s.^[1] He played a general editorial role as "compiler of the lists of names to be treated under B and future letters", but his speciality as a contributor was "Roman Catholic divines and writers".^[6] He was also a prolific contributor to the Catholic Encyclopaedia.

He was buried in Norwood Cemetery.^[7]