New Director at UNZT

We are delighted to announce that Rev Dr Isaac Thompson MBE DL has joined the Board of Directors of UNZT. Many will have known him either through an early career ministry in the Glenavy area, or through his participation in the 2025 ANZAC service at the Ballance House.

A native of Coleraine, former pupil of CAI and currently a Governor of its reformed Coleraine Grammar School, he has been a minister of The Presbyterian Church in Ireland since 1983, pastored First Presbyterian Church Cookstown from 1994-2017 where he was a member of the local Christian Aid Committee and its chairman for some years.  Originally a school teacher for four years, he served on the Boards of Governors of both Cookstown High and Primary Schools. 

In 1987 he was commissioned in The Royal Army Chaplains’ Department and for eighteen years he ministered to HM Forces with a NATO role but with no operational role in Northern Ireland. From 2005 he was a member of The Royal British Legion and was Branch President in Cookstown for a number of years.  In 2014 he was appointed as one of Her Majesty’s Deputy Lieutenants for County Tyrone, the first Presbyterian minister to be appointed to that role. In 2020 Dr Thompson was awarded an MBE for his services to the community and Her Majesty’s Forces.

Dr Thompson, whose wife, Anne, sadly died in 2017, has a particular interest in New Zealand having visited it to be with family members who live there currently. 

The Board feels that Isaac has enormous experience and considerable gifts to bring to the work of the Board and is sure that its work will be enhanced by his involvement.

Paul Hewitt, Chairman, UNZT at The Ballance House