Record

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
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

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