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

Harry Dixon

Harry Dixon

Sculptor, painter, illustrator. Born Watford, son of the photographer, Henry Dixon, who specialised in animal photographs taken at London Zoo, near where they lived. So it's interesting that Harry ...

Person, Art, Sculpture

1 memorial
Henry Bursill

Henry Bursill

Bursill also sculpted the allegorical statues on Holborn bridge and seems to be the same man who produced a book on hand shadows in 1851. See Speel for some more info on Bursill.

Person, Sculpture

3 memorials
Louis François Roubiliac

Louis François Roubiliac

Sculptor. Born Lyon. Made his reputation in 1749 with the tomb of the Duke of Argyll in Westminster Abbey. Died penniless.

Person, Sculpture

5 memorials
Dr Robert Tait Mackenzie/Mckenzie

Dr Robert Tait Mackenzie/Mckenzie

Physician, physical therapist, physical educator, and sculptor.  Born Ontario of Scots stock.  Served as a medical officer in Manchester in WW1.  He was commisioned for the 1927 Scots American war ...

Person, Sculpture, Canada, Scotland

1 memorial
Mark Holloway

Mark Holloway

Assistant to Enzo Plazzotta.

Person, Sculpture

1 memorial