Sculptures
Thomas Mewburn Crook
Thomas in 1934 with a sculpture of his young daughter
Family History
Thomas Mewburn Crook was the third and youngest son of James Crook who was a cotton dealer, and his wife Dinah. He was the middle of five children with two younger sisters. The name 'Mewburn' came through Dinah's family; she being the grand-daughter of Tulip Mewburn from Newcastle upon Tyne and the great grand-daughter of Simon Mewburn and Mary Tulip of Acomb, Northumberland.
At some point in the 1870's, James and Dinah and their young family moved from Tonge Moor to St. Mark's Street, Bolton. When he was old enough, Thomas together with an older brother was sent to boarding school, the Xavierian Collegiate Institute, Manchester. Further education followed at the Church Institute, Bolton and the Manchester Technical School.
Whilst Thomas' brothers went into the cotton industry like their father, Thomas was determined to study Art, and Sculpture in particular. To this end Thomas travelled widely in Europe, visiting France, Belgium, Spain, Italy and Germany.
This first hand experience, together with his years spent studying under Professor Lanteri helped to launch him as a skilled sculptor, though this took time. Hence his position as the modelling master and anatomy lecturer at Manchester School of Art provided a regular income, whilst his name got better known in Sculptural circles. His move to Chiswick in 1905 also coincided with the death of his father, so Thomas' mother and sisters went with him. Thomas continued his work in earnest, as well as joining a number of Art groups around London, which included the Savage Club. In 1914 Thomas was elected the Honourable Secretary of the Royal British Artists, a position he held until the latter years of the Second World War. As he got better known requests came to Thomas to help with the decoration of two churches, one in Wigan, St. Mary's and one called St. Mark's, North Audley Street, London. These requests he fulfilled alongside other sculptural works he was doing at the time.
In 1929, Thomas married Winifred, an event that perhaps in earlier years he had never envisaged. By this time Thomas' mother had passed away and his two sisters had returned north.
Thus the 1930's were a very busy period for Thomas in different ways. Whilst his sculpture continued, the arrival of five children between 1930-1938, four daughters and a son meant that there was never a dull moment. Thomas revelled in his young family and was very proud of them. Unfortunately the outbreak of War in September 1939 saw his wife and children evacuated to Buckinghamshire, with the youngest child only eighteen months old. Thomas stayed on in Chiswick to look after the family home and to continue his work, seeing his family only at weekends. However the heavy bombardment of London during the War and increasing age took its toll, so that when his family returned to Chiswick after six years away, Thomas was not at all well and much more frail than before the War. He died in January 1949 after a very full life and is buried in Chiswick. His wife, Winifred took up mosaic in later life and she died in July 1980.
Thomas is survived by his five children, four of whom, are grandparents themselves, sixteen grandchildren and thirty two great grandchildren. Thomas' artistic legacy lives on in his children, one of whom is an icon painter, another who carves in wood and another who has made several statues for the local church. His artistic talent is also evident in some of his grandchildren and his great grandchildren.
Though none of his grandchildren ever met him, some of his statues, big and small, were in Winifred's home, so on visits to see their Grandmother, they were never left in any doubt as to what he had done for a living.