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

Thomas Thornycroft

Categories: Sculpture

Thomas Thornycroft

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 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

Gustav Laerum

Gustav Laerum

Norwegian, better known for satirical drawings.

Person, Art, Sculpture, Norway

1 memorial
Thomas H. Wren

Thomas H. Wren

From Bonhams: Wren was apprenticed at the Compton pottery set up by Mary Watts. After her husband's death Wren was commissioned to produce the memorial relief for Postman's Park and also, after a d...

Person, Sculpture

1 memorial
H. T. H.  van Golberdinge

H. T. H. van Golberdinge

Sculptor active in 1917.

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1 memorial
William Charles Holland King

William Charles Holland King

W. C. H. King was a sculptor. He was born in Cheltenham in 1884 and died in 1973. He was apprenticed to a firm of architectural sculptors at the age of 16 where he engaged in training for wood carv...

Person, Sculpture

2 memorials
Gary Breeze

Gary Breeze

Stonemason. Born Essex.

Person, Sculpture

4 memorials