| Authorised form of name | Thorneycroft; Sir; John Isaac (1843 - 1928); naval architect |
| Other forms of surname | Thornycroft |
| Dates | 1843 - 1928 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Via Sistina, Rome, Lazio, Italy, Europe |
| Date of birth | 01 February 1843 |
| Place of death | Steyne, near Bembridge, Isle of Wight, English Channel |
| Date of death | 28/06/1928 |
| DatesAndPlaces | Burial:
Bembridge, Isle of Wight, English Channel |
| Occupation | naval architect |
| Activity | Education:
Studied at the Vatican; Glasgow University; Royal School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.
Career:
Lived with his uncle and his wife in Gawsworth, Cheshire (1851); built the ‘Nautilus’, his first steam launch, in his father’s studio (1860); employed at Palmer’s Shipbuilding Company, Jarrow-on-Tyne, where he gained practical experience; employed at the drawing-office of Messrs. Randolph, Elder and Company under John Elder, the marine engineer; began shipbuilding on the River Thames at Chiswick (1864); Established his shipbuilding business John I. Thornycroft at Chiswick (1866); produced his first vessel for the Royal Navy, a motor torpedo boat (1877); took an interest in motor vehicles, developing steam-powered vans which were first built at the Homefield works near the Chiswick shipyard and later at Basingstoke (1890s); his partner, John Donaldson, died (1899); lack of money forced him to convert the private firm into a public company and bring in outside capital. Registered the new public company, John I. Thornycroft & Co. Ltd (1901); his company adopted the internal combustion engine (1902 onwards); transferred larger shipbuilding to Southampton (1904); set up the Hampton Launch Works on Platts Eyot, an island on the Thames at Hampton, Middlesex (1908); produced ‘pleasure cars’, later concentrating on commercial vehicle (1902-1913); built a craft for the Admiralty who required a fast launch that could skim safely over minefields and carry a torpedo, known as coastal motor boats (CMBs), in great secrecy at Hampton on the Thames (1916); retired to Bembridge on the Isle of Wight; died of myocardial degeneration (1928).
Honours:
Kt 1902
Memberships:
MICE |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 01/06/1893 |
| Age at election | 50 |
| Proposer | John Perry |
| Samuel Haughton |
| William Cawthorne Unwin |
| William Edward Ayrton |
| Frederick Bramwell |
| Alexanderr Blackie William Kennedy |
| John Marshall |
| James Emerson Reynolds |
| George Salmon |
| George Francis Fitzgerald |
| John Gray McKendrick |
| Robert Grant |
| James Thomson Bottomley |
| James Thomson |
| Relationships | Parents: Thomas Thornycroft (1815–1885) and Mary Thornycroft (1809–1895), daughter of John Francis (1780–1861).
Siblings: Sir William Hamo Thornycroft (1850–1925).
Spouse: Blanche Ada Coules, daughter of Frederick Coules of Gloucester, tanner and bark merchant (8 October 1870).
Children: John Edward Thornycroft; Blanche Thornycroft; Isaac Thomas Thornycroft; Edith Alice Thornycroft; Mary Beatrix Thornycroft; Ada Francis Thornycroft; and Eldred Elizabeth Thornycroft. |
| OtherInfo | Remembered for his Hull designs and boiler designs. |
| Image | 
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| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB
Obituaries:
Proc Roy Soc Series A 1928 vol 121 pp xxxv-xxxvii, plate, signed by E H T d'E |
| Code | NA3693 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| EC/1893/13 | Thorneycroft, Sir John Isaac: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| IM/Maull/004593 | Thornycroft, Sir John Isaac | nd |
| NLB/7/281 | Copy letter from Herbert Rix, to Lord Kelvin [William Thomson], Fellow of the Royal Society | 11 January 1893 |
| NLB/10/363 | Copy letter from Herbert Rix, to John Isaac Thorneycroft, Fellow of the Royal Society | 13 November 1894 |
| NLB/9/577 | Copy letter from Herbert Rix, to John Isaac Thornycroft, Fellow of the Royal Society | 8 June 1894 |
| NLB/21/565 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to John Isaac Thorneycroft, Fellow of the Royal Society | 10 December 1900 |
| NLB/34/262 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Sir John Isaac Thornycroft, Fellow of the Royal Society | 18 December 1906 |
| NLB/34/291 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Sir John Issac Thornycroft, Fellow of the Royal Society | 21 December 1906 |
| NLB/37/762 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to Sir John Thorneycroft, Fellow of the Royal Society | 9 May 1908 |
| NLB/54/628 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Messrs Harrison & Sons | 9 July 1917 |
| MC/20/429 | Letter from John [Isaac] Thorneycroft, Steyne, Bembridge near Ryde, Isle of Wight, to the Secretary of the Royal Society | 25 December 1905 |
| NLB/29/874 | Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison, to Sir John Isaac Thornycroft, Fellow of the Royal Society, Steyne, Bembridge, near Ryde, Isle of Wight | 3 January 1904 [1905] |
| MC/20 | Volume 20 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society | 1905 |