Harry (Henry) Thorndyke Percival
- Birth date 1832-1833, Bombay, India
- Marriage 2 May 1856 to Anna Maria daughter of John Rowell at Church of St Leonard, Shoreditch
- Death date April-June 1900 at Fulham [CHECK]
According to Census and other records, Harry Thorndyke Percival was born in Bombay, India, in 1832 or 1833. When he travelled to England is not known, but he married Anna Maria Rowell at St Leonards, Shoreditch, London on 2 May 1856 and was living in Chester, when his first child was born, in 1857. After a brief time in Ireland about 1858-1860, he settled in Newchurch, Rossendale. Census returns for 1861, 1871 and 1881 record him residing there in practice as an architect and surveyor. Mostly his recorded commissions are within the immediate locality. However, Ruyton Towers (now Ruyton Manor) near Oswestry, with its associated coach-house, outbuildings and terraces, where Harry Percival acted as both architect and builder, does not follow this usual pattern. Speaking at the workmen’s dinner at Ruyton he noted that he had also “erected the building without external scaffolding, a system which he had before carried out on several noblemen's and gentlemen's mansions, and very successfully.” Details of these works have yet to be found.
It would appear that he had moved to London by 1886. On 13 March of that year the West London Observer reported a meeting of the Hammersmith Vestry when it was determined that “Harry Thorndyke Percival be appointed Clerk of the Works at a salary of £3 12s per week, on the understanding that he devotes the whole of his time to the duties of his office.”
It is assumed that Harry Percival, theatre architect in practice 1885-1910 in London is another unrelated architect of the same name
Address
1861-1883 Newchurch, Rossendale, Lancashire
1886 London
Residence
1857 Nicholas Street, Chester (baptism record)
1859-1860 Ireland
1861 Back Street, Newchurch
1881 Old Vicarage, Front Street, Newchurch
1886 London