13 Facts About Thomas Sturge

Thomas Sturge was a British oil merchant, shipowner, cement manufacturer, railway company director, social reformer and philanthropist.

Thomas Sturge was born in 1787, one of at least ten children of Thomas Sturge the elder, tallow chandler and oil merchant of Newington Butts, about a mile south of London Bridge.

Thomas Sturge was a first cousin of social reformer and philanthropist Joseph Sturge.

Thomas Sturge junior had become the senior partner in the business by 1816, when he began to buy ships and send them to the Southern Whale Fishery to obtain whale oil, seal oil and spermaceti for processing and sale in London.

Thomas Sturge became the principal owner of at least 23 vessels, most of them South Sea whalers.

Thomas Sturge tried to choose committed Christians to command his whale ships and in his sailing instructions gave his captains detailed advice on how to treat their crewmen.

Thomas Sturge was a member of the Anti-Slavery Society and substantial financial contributor to the cause.

Thomas Sturge made regular donations to a range of other charitable causes.

Thomas Sturge provided transport to missionaries going to the South Seas on his whaling ships.

In 1838 Thomas Sturge joined a group of London shipowners to purchase two vessels, the schooner Eliza Scott and the cutter Sabrina.

Thomas Sturge Island is 23 miles long and 6 miles wide and permanently covered in a mantle of snow and ice.

Thomas Sturge was interested in the building of new railways and in 1842 he spoke at a public meeting in favour of the construction of the Dean Forest and Gloucester railway line.

Thomas Sturge became a significant shareholder in the Eastern Union Railway Company and a major shareholder and director of the West Hartlepool Harbour and Railway Company.