Sir John Thursby, 1st Baronet

Colonel Sir John Hardy Thursby, 1st Baronet (31 August 1826 – 16 March 1901) was a British landowner, military officer, and sportsman.

[1][2] As a teenager, at Easter 1843, he assisted Studley Martin in excavating an ancient burial site on the moors east of Burnley, Lancashire.

[1] Opting for a military career, he served in the 90th Light Infantry for eight years,[4] joining as Ensign in September 1845,[5] and obtaining the rank of Lieutenant in November 1848.

[1] Through his mother and maternal aunt Charlotte (the wife of General Sir James Yorke Scarlett), he inherited control of The Executors of John Hargreaves, a coal-mining business.

[13] Keeping his Lancashire seat at Ormerod House, Cliviger near Burnley, he kept another residence at Holmhurst in Christchurch (then in Hampshire, now Dorset) and a townhouse at Ennismore Gardens in Knightsbridge, London.

[4] Entering into racehorse ownership in 1890, he owned Paddy, which won the 1892 November Handicap at Manchester and the Great Metropolitan at Epsom in 1894.

Following the death of the Duke of Westminster, Thursby bought his, previously successful, Calverley at auction for £8,295 (the equivalent of approximately £1.2 million as of 2023[a]).

[2] He died in Cannes, France on 16 March 1901, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son, Sir John Ormerod Scarlett Thursby.

His wife and children dedicated two stained-glass windows on the north side of the nave at St Marks Church, Highcliffe, Christchurch to his memory.