Thomas Thornycroft
Thomas Thornycroft (19 May 1815 – 30 August 1885) was an English sculptor and engineer.
[edit] Biography
Thomas Thornycroft was born near Gawsworth, Cheshire, the eldest son of John Thornycroft, a farmer. He was educated at Congleton Grammar School and then briefly apprenticed to a surgeon. He moved to London where he spent four years as an assistant to the sculptor John Francis. In 1840 he married Francis' daughter, Mary, who was also a sculptor.[1] One of their grandsons was the poet Siegfried Sassoon.[citation needed]
Thomas made an over-life-sized plaster equestrian statue of Queen Victoria for the Great Exhibition of 1851 which was much admired by the queen and by Prince Albert. He produced 50 bronze statuettes from this model and in 1868 a full-sized version for the exterior of St George's Hall, Liverpool, which was accompanied by a matching statue of Prince Albert. He made similar statues of the queen for Halifax in 1864 and for Wolverhampton in 1866. In 1867 Thornycroft was commissioned to carve in marble the group entitled Commerce for the Albert Memorial. He also worked on a monumental equestrian statue of Boadicea and her Daughters. However this was not cast in bronze until 1902, 17 years after his death; it now stands on Westminster Bridge, London.[1]
In later life Thomas worked with his older son John Isaac Thornycroft (who was to become a shipbuilder) on designs for steam launches. He did design in 1875, together with Mary and another son, Hamo Thornycroft, the Poet's Fountain, near Hyde Park Corner, London. Other works by Thornycroft are in the Old Bailey and in Westminster Abbey, London. He died in Brenchley, Kent and is buried in Chiswick Old Church, Middlesex. His estate was over £11,046.[1]
Thomas Thornycroft's other works include:
- memorial to John Hamilton-Martin in St Michael's Church, Ledbury (1857, with Mary)[1]
- statue of Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster in Grosvenor Park, Chester (1869) [2]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Mark Stocker, ‘Thornycroft, Thomas (1815–1885)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004 online edn, Oct 2006 [1], accessed 2 January 2009
- ^ Groves, Linden (2004), Historic Parks & Gardens of Cheshire, Ashbourne: Landmark, p. 124, ISBN 1 84306 124 4
