Joseph Cheesman Thompson

Joseph Cheesman Thompson (1874–1943) was a career medical officer in the United States Navy who attained the rank of commander before retirement in 1929. His foes called him ‘Crazy Thompson’, but to friends he was known as ‘Snake’, a nickname derived from his expertise in the field of herpetology.

A true polymath, Thompson displayed a depth of knowledge in a wide variety of fields from Asian religion to zoology. His friend Rhoda Seoane wrote of him, that he would at times go into the Library of Congress to read the Sanskrit texts. Of his character, she wrote, “Thompson never consumed any alcohol, neither did he smoke. His knowledge of whatever subject he might be interested in was so detailed and his mind as sharp as a razor’s edge, he would have been a most able cross-examiner in court.”

An 1892 graduate of Columbia Medical School, Thompson joined the US Navy in 1897. On May 18, 1900, he was detached from the USS Bennington, (a gunboat that saw service in Hawaii, the Philippines and along the Pacific coasts of North and South America), and he was ordered to Mare Island Hospital for some unspecified treatment.

In a dispatch dated August 20, 1900, USMC Major William P. Biddle lists ‘Asst. Surg. J. C. Thompson, U.S.N.’, as part of the First Regiment United States Marines China Relief Expedition, which was sent to Peking to rescue foreigners and Chinese Christians who were under attack by the ‘Boxers’ or “Fists of Righteous Harmony”. Another dispatch of the same date commends J.C. Thompson, among others, as ‘alert and zealous in caring for those overcome by the heat and the wounded.’

On December 22, 1900, The New York Times reported, “Assistant surgeon J. C. Thompson is detached from Cavite Hospital and ordered to the Solace.” (The USS Solace was a hospital ship used at first during the Spanish–American War.)

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