William Homan Thorpe, 1 April 1902 - 7 April 1986

William Homan Thorpe came from a Sussex family. He could trace his ancestors back through two generations of shoemakers to a great-great- grandfather who was landlord of The Six Bells at Chiddingly. One of his great-uncles, Richard Oscar Tugwell Thorpe, became 9th Wrangler at Queens’ College, took Holy Orders and in 1870 founded The Infant Life Protection Society, giving evidence before Parliament that led to the first Infant Life Protection Act. His father, Francis Homan Thorpe, was Borough Accountant of Hastings, and later Chief Accountant of the Imperial Tobacco Company. On the other side of his family, his mother was related to Felix Joseph Slade (1788-1868), founder of the Slade School and of the Slade Professorships at Oxford and Cambridge.