Subject

Civil engineer. Son of Thomas and Mary Thornycroft. Born Rome. Studied and began work in Glasgow.  Then studied at the Royal School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at South Kensington, while at the same time establishing a shipyard at Chiswick, financially assisted by his parents. Eventually the business was taken over by his eldest son who moved it to Southampton. Thornycroft went in semi-retirement to the Isle of Wight where he worked on surface-skimming hull designs that were used in WW1. His eldest daughter had been one of the first women to become a member of the Naval School and she assisted him with this work. He died on the Isle of Wight.