Obituary: Margaret Thomson

Documentary film-maker Margaret Thomson, known for British wartime films on subjects such as compost heaps but also several newsreels she made for the New Zealand Film Unit, has died aged 95.

The series of public information films she made in Britain during World War II were designed to help amateur gardeners and farmers make their contribution to the war effort; these included such titles as Making a Compost Heap (1942), Clamping Potatoes (1942) and Making Grass Silage (1943).

Thomson was born in Australia but spent most of her childhood in Wellington. Thomson took a master's degree in zoology at Canterbury College but, unable to find a job in New Zealand, moved to London in 1934.

In 1948 she returned to New Zealand, where she directed several newsreels for the New Zealand Film Unit before returning to Britain in 1950.