Peter Kai Thornton

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(April 8, 1925 – February 8, 2007) was a museum

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

and writer. The son of eminent scientist Sir (Henry) Gerard Thornton and Gerda, daughter of Kai Norregaard, of

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

(and related to the actress, director and writer

Eva Le Gallienne Eva Le Gallienne (January 11, 1899 – June 3, 1991) was a British-born American stage actress, producer, director, translator, and author. A Broadway star by age 21, Le Gallienne gave up her Broadway appearances to devote herself to founding ...

through the latter's Danish mother, journalist Julie Norregaard), Thornton was educated at

Bryanston Bryanston is a village and civil parish in north Dorset, England, situated on the River Stour west of Blandford Forum. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 925. The village is adjacent to the grounds of Bryanston School, an ind ...

, which he left aged 14 to enrol at the de Havilland aeronautical technical school and work on the

Mosquito Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning "gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "lit ...

production line at

Hatfield, Hertfordshire Hatfield is a town and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, in the borough of Welwyn Hatfield. It had a population of 29,616 in 2001, and 39,201 at the 2011 Census. The settlement is of Saxon origin. Hatfield House, home of the Marquess o ...

; after serving during World War II in the Intelligence Corps, he went up to

Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is the fifth-oldest surviving college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by ...

, where he read Danish and German (B.A. 1950). After being assistant keeper at the

Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Vi ...

, Cambridge, and joint secretary to the

National Art Collections Fund Art Fund (formerly the National Art Collections Fund) is an independent membership-based British charity, which raises funds to aid the acquisition of artworks for the nation. It gives grants and acts as a channel for many gifts and bequests, as ...

, in London, from 1952 to 1954, Thornton joined the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and ...

in London, serving as keeper of furniture and woodwork between 1966 and 1984, and curator to

Sir John Soane's Museum Sir John Soane's Museum is a house museum, located next to Lincoln's Inn Fields in Holborn, London, which was formerly the home of neo-classical architect, John Soane. It holds many drawings and architectural models of Soane's projects, and ...

, in

Lincoln's Inn Fields Lincoln's Inn Fields is the List of city squares by size, largest public square in London. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entreprene ...

between 1984 and 1995. Thornton was best known for his radical approach to the presentation of historic interiors at

Ham House Ham House is a 17th-century house set in formal gardens on the bank of the River Thames in Ham, south of Richmond in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. The original house was completed in 1610 by Thomas Vavasour, an Elizabethan cou ...

Osterley Park Osterley Park and House is a Georgian country estate in west London, that straddles the London boroughs of Ealing and Hounslow. Originally dating from the 1570s, the estate contains a number of Grade I and II listed buildings, with the park ...

and

Apsley House Apsley House is the London townhouse of the Dukes of Wellington. It stands alone at Hyde Park Corner, on the south-east corner of Hyde Park, facing south towards the busy traffic roundabout in the centre of which stands the Wellington Arch. It ...

. His daughter, Emma Bettina, married the diplomat Peter Jay; she was Jay's second wife.Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage 1990, ed. Patrick Montague-Smith, pg 686

Bibliography

*''Seventeenth Century Interior Decoration in England, France and Holland'' (1978). * with Maurice Tomlin: ''The Furnishing and Decoration of Ham House''. Furniture History Society, London 1981. *''Authentic Décor: the Domestic Interior 1620-1920'' (1984). *''Innovation in the Decorative Arts 1470-1870'' (1989). * ''The Italian Renaissance Interior, 1400 - 1600''. H. N. Abrams, New York City 1991, ,

References

* Knox, Tim
Peter Thornton
''The Guardian'', 12 March 2007. * Lightbown, Ronald
Peter Thornton
''The Independent'', 20 February 2007.
Peter Thornton
''The Telegraph'', 24 February 2007. 1925 births 2007 deaths Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge British curators Commanders of the Order of the British Empire {{UK-writer-stub