Person    | Male  Born 19/5/1815  Died 30/8/1885

Thomas Thornycroft

Categories: Sculpture

Sculptor. born Cheshire. Came to London in 1835 where he was apprenticed to John Francis and worked alongside another of Francis's apprentices, his daughter Mary, whom he married on 29 February 1840. Four of their children became artists or sculptors, including Hamo and Teresa, a painter who had three children including Siegfried Sassoon. Thomas's eldest son, John Isaac became a naval architect. It was Mary's work which sustained the family financially. The only surviving public sculptures by Thomas himself in London of which we are aware are the Commerce group on the Albert Memorial and the Boudicca statue, but even that was actually a joint production by the Thornycroft family.

He was an amateur engineer and late in life assisted his son John to design steam launches (we wonder if that "assisted" should be in quotes). The Thornycroft marriage appears to have been happy, but one has to admire Mary: a Victorian wife who brought up six children, carried on a successful career as a sculptor, and taught her skills to the royal princesses including Princess Louise. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography recounts this significant story from their granddaughter: "Thomas Thornycroft had been known to cut the heads off Mary's clay models, ostensibly to position them better, but provoking exasperated cries of ‘Only tell me! Thorny, only tell me!’ from his wife as she tried to protect her works". Our hearts go out to her.

This section lists the memorials created by the subject on this page:
Thomas Thornycroft

Creations i

Boadicea/Boudicca/Boudica

The horses look totally out of control to us; no wonder the two daughters loo...

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Fame

The statue glistens with recent gilding. This was first done in 2002 in honou...

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Poets’ Fountain - Chaucer, Shakespeare & Milton

The seated figures represent the three Muses; the standing figures, the three...

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Other Subjects

Princess Louise Duchess of Argyll

Princess Louise Duchess of Argyll

Born at Buckingham Palace, sixth child of Queen Victoria. Was a talented sculptress taught, and possibly more, by Joseph Boehm. In 1871 caused a stir by marrying John Douglas Sutherland Campbell, M...

Person, Royalty, Sculpture, Canada

9 memorials
F. V. Blundstone

F. V. Blundstone

Sculptor.  Born Switzerland in an English family.  Seems to have specialised in war memorials. Active during the period 1919-1929, at least.

Person, Sculpture, Switzerland

2 memorials
Albert Hodge

Albert Hodge

Born on the Scottish island of Islay. Some information about Hodge can be found at Glasgow City of Sculpture.

Person, Sculpture, Scotland

2 memorials
Edward Bainbridge Copnall

Edward Bainbridge Copnall

Other work in London includes the Light and Sound reliefs on the Vue cinema in  Cranbourn Street; The Swan Upper on Putney's Riverbank House; the wonderful 1958 Black Friar on Friars House 157- 168...

Person, Sculpture

5 memorials
Derwent Wood

Derwent Wood

Sculptor. Born Francis Derwent Wood at Eskin Place, Caslerigg, St John's, Keswick, Cumberland. His family moved to Switzerland and then Germany, where he studied and became proficient in three lang...

Person, Sculpture, Germany, Scotland, Switzerland

3 memorials