William Thompson establishes an iron boat building business in Bilston, UK.

Works move to Wolverhampton to concentrate on production of steam boilers.

An agent is appointed in South Africa.

John Thompson – Albert de Jong (Pty) Ltd manufactures its first boiler in South Africa.

John Thompson Africa (Pty) Ltd is established under control of the UK parent company.

John Thompson UK acquires Cochran to become Europe’s leading manufacturer of shell boilers.

Clarke Chapman Ltd and Reyrolle Parsons Ltd form Northern Engineering Industries Ltd (NEI).

NEI merges with Rolls-Royce, creating Rolls-Royce Industrial Power Group, which includes International Combustion Ltd, Cochran and John Thompson Africa.

Alstom Power purchases the assets of NEI Africa, including John Thompson Africa and ICAL, and creates the business division – John Thompson Boilers.

Alstom South Africa acquires 90% of its shares from Alstom P and became a South African owned company with 50% BEE ownership.

Alstom Electrical Industries (Pty) Ltd is rebranded to become ACTOM (Pty) Ltd, of which John Thompson is a division.

John Thompson celebrates 75 years in South Africa.

John Thompson’s manufacturing facility in Bellville celebrates its 60^th year.