David Coupar Thomson

David Coupar Thomson (23 May 1861 – 12 December 1954) was the proprietor of the newspaper and publishing company D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.

David Coupar Thomson was born in Dundee, Scotland to William T and Margaret C Thomson. He went to Newport-on-Tay Primary School in Fife and then to the High School of Dundee. At 16 years of age, he was sent to the family shipping business in Glasgow.

His father, William Thomson, was a successful draper and later a shipowner, and in 1884 became the major shareholder of the Dundee Courier & Daily Argus. In 1886, at his father's request, David Coupar Thomson moved back to Dundee to become the general manager of the paper. The other son, Frederick, joined the company in 1888.

In 1905, D.C. Thomson Ltd. was founded with £60,000 capital. William, David and Frederick had all but four of the company shares which were valued at £10 per share. Each wife had an allocation of one share; the remaining share belonged to Frances Thomas Mudie.

When Frederick died in 1917, D.C. became the sole proprietor of the company. Between 1920 and 1922, he actively campaigned using vitriolic rhetoric against one of the two M.P.s for Dundee, the Liberal politician Winston Churchill. At one meeting, Churchill was able to speak for only 40 minutes when he was barracked by a section of the audience. At the General Election of 1922 both of the local newspapers owned by Thomson, the Liberal supporting "Dundee Advertiser" and the Conservative inlined "Courier" advised their readers to reject Churchill. Subsequently, Churchill came only fourth in the poll and lost his seat at Dundee to prohibitionist, Edwin Scrymgeour, quipping later that he left Dundee "without an office, without a seat, without a party and without an appendix". Thomson barred Churchill's name from his newspapers until World War II made occasional use of it unavoidable.

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