William P.L. Thomson, OBE, MA, M.Univ., Dip.Ed., was Rector of Kirkwall Grammar School from 1971-1991, previous to which he was Principal Teacher of History and Geography in The Anderson High School, Shetland. He is author of The Little General and the Rousay Crofters (1981), Kelp-making in Orkney (1983), History of Orkney (1987), Lord Henry Sinclair's 1492 Rental of Orkney (1996), Orkney, Land and People (2008) and numerous papers on the economic and social history of Orkney and Shetland.