An inexpensive, high repetition rate (1 to 100 kHz), thyratron driver has been developed which employs a single solid state switch. The driver delivers an unloaded 1.5 kV positive trigger pulse superimposed onto a negative 300 V recovery voltage to the thyratron trigger grid. The voltage rate of rise (>10 kV mu s-1) results in low-trigger jitter (less than the 5 ns resolution of the diagnostic apparatus). The driver has been used to trigger a thyratron in the excitation circuit of a copper hybrid laser at a pulse recurrence frequency of 70 kHz.