Edward Landers Thompson was born in 1859 in Conisbrough, the son of Charles Thompson, who was a clerk to a brewer and port merchant.  By 1871, Edward was living in Sheffield with his widowed mother, Sarah, who was a shopkeeper.  Edward became an electro-plate manager.  In 1883, he began his own venture at St Mary’s Works, Mary Street.  In 1887, he moved to West Street and registered a silver mark in 1889 (another was registered from Central Plate & Cutlery Works, West Street, in 1896).  He married Sophia Matilda Gayner (1867-1909) in Lyncombe near Bath, Somerset on 10 June 1889.

He advertised a range of fish eaters and table cutlery in The Foreign Buyers’ Catalogue (1895).  Thompson’s business address after the First World War was Holly Lane.  E. L. Thompson, 222 Penistone Road North, died on 21 December 1930, aged 71.  He left £187.  His son, Frank Charles Thompson (1891-1977), became a professor of metallurgy at Manchester University.