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.

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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 - from Poets’ Fountain

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

John Broad

John Broad

Born Worcestershire. A ceramic artist he worked for Doultons of Lambeth. Bob Speel identifies other work in London: the grand pediment on Harrods, "a 1896 panel for the Reredos of St Ann's Church i...

Person, Sculpture

1 memorial
Oscar Nemon

Oscar Nemon

Born in what is now Croatia. Worked in Vienna and Brussels and settled in Britain in 1938. Specialised in Winston Churchill. Our picture shows Nemon with a self-portrait: now that sculpture we woul...

Person, Sculpture, Yugoslavia

4 memorials
Aimé-Jules Dalou

Aimé-Jules Dalou

Sculptor. Born and died in Paris. Fervent supporter of the Paris Commune. When this was suppressed he escaped to London in July 1871, and only returned to Paris in 1880 when pardoned in the general...

Person, Sculpture, France

1 memorial
Sir Bertram Mackennal

Sir Bertram Mackennal

Born in Melbourne, Australia. Came to London to study at the British Museum and the Royal Academy. Also spent some time in Paris where he was influenced by Rodin. Was an associate member of the Roy...

Person, Sculpture, Australia

4 memorials

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G. C. Lawrence
War dead, WW1
1 memorial
Alderman J. E. A. King

Alderman J. E. A. King

Housing Committee Parmiter Street, 1926. Alderman and member of Housing Committee, Parmiter Street, and on the Bethnal Green Baths Committee in 1926. Member of the LCC and a Councillor on the Bethn...

Person, Politics & Administration

2 memorials
Bishop Challoner

Bishop Challoner

WC1, Old Gloucester Street, 44

Bishop Richard Challoner, 1691 - 1781, vicar-apostolic of the London District, died here.

1 subject commemorated
John Joseph Sims, VC

John Joseph Sims, VC

Soldier. A private in the 34th Regiment of Foot. On 18th June 1855 in Sebastopol, he went out under heavy fire in broad daylight and brought in wounded soldiers from outside the trenches. For his a...

Person, Armed Forces, Crimea

War served, Other war
1 memorial