James Pyke Thompson was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 corn merchant who is best known for his philanthropic work towards the people of Cardiff

Cardiff

Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

 and Penarth

Penarth

Penarth is a town and seaside resort in the Vale of Glamorgan , Wales, 5.2 miles south west from the city centre of the Welsh capital city of Cardiff and lying on the north shore of the Severn Estuary at the southern end of Cardiff Bay...

 in South Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

. Born into a wealthy family in Bridgwater

Bridgwater

Bridgwater is a market town and civil parish in Somerset, England. It is the administrative centre of the Sedgemoor district, and a major industrial centre. Bridgwater is located on the major communication routes through South West England...

, Somerset

Somerset

The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...

, Thompson joined his father as director of Spiller & Co., Cardiff, one of the largest milling companies in Britain.

Thompson was a professional art collector and was a particular admirer of British water colours. To allow the public to view his collection, he built the Turner House gallery, named after artist Joseph Turner

J. M. W. Turner

Joseph Mallord William Turner RA was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting...

, in Penarth in 1887. It opened to the public in 1888. He also gave thousands of pounds to both Cardiff's Municipal Museum and National Museum

National Museum Cardiff

National Museum Cardiff is a museum and art gallery in Cardiff, Wales. The museum is part of the wider network of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales...

. The Thompson family carried on his philanthropic work after his death and the Turner House gallery was donated to the National Museum in 1921. In 1924 the land surrounding the family house in Canton

Canton, Cardiff

Canton is an inner-city district and community in the west of Cardiff, capital of Wales, lying west of the city's civic centre. One of the most ethnically diverse of Cardiff's suburbs, with a significant Asian population such as Pakistanis and Indians, Canton has a population just in excess of...

, Cardiff was also presented to the city; it was renamed Thompson's Park

Thompson's Park

Thompson's Park is a park in Cardiff, Wales, located in the Canton area. It is one of the city's oldest parks that features areas of woodland mixed with open grassed areas and ornamental planting...

.