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

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 Bell

John Bell

Sculptor. Born Norfolk though his family home was in Suffolk. On the Albert Memorial the America group is his. Died at home at 15 Douro Place, Victoria Road, Kensington.

Person, Sculpture

2 memorials
Maurice Lambert

Maurice Lambert

Sculptor. Born Paris. Brother of the musician Constant Lambert. This portrait is by his father. There is photograph of him (older and not so pretty) at the Court Gallery. His other work in London i...

Person, Sculpture, France

1 memorial
Philomena Davidson Davis

Philomena Davidson Davis

Born London, she became the first female president of the Royal British Society of Sculptors in 1990, a post she held for six years. Our picture source gives a biography and bibliography.

Person, Sculpture

1 memorial
Sir William Goscombe John

Sir William Goscombe John

Born in Cardiff as William Goscombe John but he adopted Goscombe. He travelled across Europe and studied with Rodin. Worked in the "new sculpture" style. When he and his wife Marthe returned to the...

Person, Sculpture, Wales

4 memorials
Edward William Wyon

Edward William Wyon

Sculptor. Born Edward William Wyon in Christchurch, Surrey, into a family of die-casters and medallists. Brother to Thomas. He exhibited frequently at the Royal Academy and received numerous commis...

Person, Sculpture

4 memorials