Engineering and the family in business: Blanche Coules Thornycroft, naval architecture and engineering design

Abstract

This paper seeks to examine and contextualise the role of Blanche Thornycroft within her family business of John I. Thornycroft in the first half of the twentieth century. The role of Blanche in assisting her father and, after his death, the Thornycroft Company in collecting experimental data informed the design of many vessels. Her role in testing Coastal Motor Boats is explored using the archival material discovered during the ARHC funded project ‘Business, government and the workplace: John I. Thornycroft & Company Limited, and the Great War'.

Keywords

• Women
• engineering
• Thornycroft
• ship
• design
• testing tank
• family business