Person    | Male  Born 1836  Died 27/1/1910

Thomas Crapper

Categories: Commerce, Engineering

Plumber. Born in Thorne, Yorkshire, and baptised 28th September 1836, (his exact date of birth is unknown). He is often mistakenly credited with the invention of the flushing lavatory (which actually first appeared in 1596), but he did invent the floating ballcock. He actually specialised in selling bathroom equipment, and his (long gone) shop in the King's Road Chelsea appears in the opening shot of the film 'The Servant'.

Popular belief has it that he gave his name to a bodily function, but the word 'crap' is originally Middle English, and its first reference to defecation appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1846. When the future  King Edward VII purchased Sandringham House, he asked Crapper to supply the plumbing, including thirty lavatories with cedarwood seats, giving him his first of several royal warrants.

One wonders what Crapper himself thought of his surname. Was it a life-long embarrassment or did he value the link between his name and the products he was selling? Either way, an excellent example of nominative determinism - see Isambard Brunel for more.

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Thomas Crapper

Commemorated ati

Thomas Crapper

Thomas Crapper, 1837 - 1910, engineer, developer of the controlled flow ciste...

Read More

Other Subjects

Temple Mills

Temple Mills

A district on the boundaries of Newham and Waltham Forest. The name derives from the water mills which straddled the River Lea. Medieval Hackney was largely rural and crops were grown that needed ...

Place, Commerce, Transport

1 memorial
Coal Hole Tavern

Coal Hole Tavern

The meeting place of the Wolf Club of which in about 1826 Edmund Kean was a leading member.  Lawrence Silverman tells us that, later, this was the tavern where Renton Nicholson staged his very rude...

Place, Commerce, Community / Clubs, Food & Drink

1 memorial
Captain Charles Algernon Fryatt

Captain Charles Algernon Fryatt

Master mariner.  Born Southampton.  From Hellfire Corner : Captain of the Great Eastern Railway Company's steamer Brussels, he in utter defiance of the Germans continued to work the Rotterdam-Briti...

Person, Commerce, Execution

War dead, WW1
2 memorials
South Suburban Gas Company

South Suburban Gas Company

Founded as the North Surrey Gas Company, it became the Crystal Palace District Gas Company before changing to its final name in 1904. It amalgamated with various other companies and was nationalise...

Group, Commerce

1 memorial
Imperial Hotel, Russell Square

Imperial Hotel, Russell Square

Designed by Charles Fitzroy Doll.  The picture was taken in 1913 after the completion of the extension, which is the section on the left, to the north (2017: we now think the 'extension' was into t...

Building, Commerce, Community / Clubs, Food & Drink

22 memorials