Theresa Thornycroft was an English

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 sculptor and member of the Thornycroft family

Thornycroft family

The Thornycroft family was a notable English family of sculptors, artists and engineers, connected by marriage to the historic Sassoon family. The earliest known mention of the family is stated in George Ormerod's History of Cheshire as during the reign of Henry III in the 13th century, taking its...

 of artists. Her brother Sir Hamo Thornycroft RA

Hamo Thornycroft

Sir William "Hamo" Thornycroft, RA was a British sculptor, responsible for several London landmarks.-Biography:...

, sisters Alyce Thornycroft and Helen Thornycroft

Helen Thornycroft

Helen Thornycroft was an English painter of the Victorian era.She was a member of the well-known Thornycroft family of sculptors, which included her maternal grandfather John Francis, her father Thomas Thornycroft, her mother Mary Thornycroft, and her younger brother Hamo Thornycroft...

 were all artists, while her brother Sir John Isaac Thornycroft

John Isaac Thornycroft

Sir John Isaac Thornycroft was a British shipbuilder, the founder of the Thornycroft shipbuilding company and member of the Thornycroft family.-Biography:He was born in 1843 to Mary Francis and Thomas Thornycroft....

 was the founder of the Thornycroft shipbuilding company. She married Alfred Ezra Sassoon of the Sassoon family

Sassoon family

The Sassoon family was an Indian family of Iraqi Jewish descent and international renown, based in Bombay, India. It was descended from the famous Ibn Shoshans, one of the richest families of medieval Spain...

, and in 1886 gave birth to Siegfried Sassoon

Siegfried Sassoon

Siegfried Loraine Sassoon CBE MC was an English poet, author and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches, and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's...

, who would become an acclaimed poet during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. The couple had two other sons, Michael and Hamo, before their separation. Theresa continued to live in the village of Matfield

Matfield

Matfield is a small village, part of the civil parish of Brenchley, in the Tunbridge Wells Borough of Kent, England. The sculptor Theresa Sassoon planted a tree on the green to commemorate the end of World War I; the tree was blown down in the hurricane of 1987 and had to be replaced...

in Kent, and was immortalised in the memoirs of her son Siegfried.