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

Alma Boyes

Alma Boyes

Also the bronze sculpture of Guy the Gorilla at London Zoo which she made in collaboration with wildlife artist William Timym.

Person, Sculpture

1 memorial
Mary Grant

Mary Grant

Despite her Wikipedia page stating (in 2022) that she was born in 1831, she was actually born on 16 March 1830 in Edinburgh, Scotland, a daughter of John Grant (1798-1873) and Lucy Grant née Bruce ...

Person, Sculpture, Scotland

1 memorial
John H. Foley

John H. Foley

Born Dublin. Works include: Albert and the group Asia, both at the Albert Memorial, After Foley's death the statue of Albert was finished by his assistant Thomas Brock. Died at home, The Priory, Up...

Person, Sculpture, Ireland

4 memorials
Richard Healy

Richard Healy

Sculptor active c. 1989 - 2001 at least.

Person, Sculpture

2 memorials
Skylon

Skylon

The picture source is the website for a group campaigning to rebuild the Skylon. "In 1951, London's skyline was transformed, as part of the Festival of Britain, by the erection of one of the most s...

Building, Sculpture

1 memorial