Thomas Thurlow

Who was Thomas Thurlow?

Thomas Thurlow was a renowned English sculptor who created memorials in churches in the Saxmundham, Suffolk area, including a bust of the poet George Crabbe in Aldeburgh Church. His father, John Thurlow, was a builder and stonemason who built 'The White House' in the High Street. Both are buried along with other members of the Thurlow family in the churchyard of the parish church.

Thomas Thurlow was born in North Entrance in Saxmundham and went to a school in Brook Cottage; Henry Bright went to the same school, and in Thurlow's memoirs he also claims Newson Garrett as a school friend. As a teenager he would turn his hand to anything such as wood and plaster carving, polishing stones, and he even made a violin, succeeding at the second attempt. At the age of 23 he left home for London where he was engaged by a monument manufacturer in Regent Street. During his spare time he took lessons in oil painting, something he pursued throughout his life. After a time employed with the London Marble Works, where he gained experience of stone carving, Thurlow returned to Suffolk first opening a business in Halesworth and then settling back in Saxmundham in 1839.