Captain Thomas Heathorn, Royal Artillery
(1831-1911)
26 March 1861

Volume 3, page 2, sitting number 2701.

Captain Thomas Bridges Heathorn of the Royal Artillery served in the Crimean War and distinguished himself in the Indian Mutiny.

Born in London in or about 1831, he was the son of shipowner Joseph Lidwell Heathorn (1785-1871). In 1861 he was a Captin in the Bombay Artillery living or staying with his parents at their home in St Mark's Crescent, Primrose Hill. 

He appears on the 1901 census living at 10 Wilton Place in Knightsbridge. A 'Retired Captain R. Artillery,' he had never married. Also present on the night of the census were: his cook, Frances Gingell, aged 61; his manservant, Frederick Nicholls, aged 33; and a housemaid named Louisa Illsey, aged 23. 

Captain Heathorn died, aged 80, on 23 January 1911. According to reports in a number of different newspapers, he left several large charitable bequests. 'Captain Thomas Bridges Heathorn, R.A., of 10, Wilton-place, Belgrave-square, S.W., a director of the South Metropolitan Gas Company and of Messrs Mason & Barry Ltd., a Crimean and Indian Mutiny veteran, and afterwards a member of the Committee of Armaments, left estate of the gross value of £75,750. Captain Heathorn left £2000 to St George's Hospital, £1000 to the Brompton Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest, £1000 to the West London Hospital, £1500 and a gold ring set with turquoise and coral to his valet, Frederick Nicholls; £10 for each year of service to each other of his indoor or outdoor servants in his service at his decease, [and] £200 to his former cook Frances Gingell. [...] Altogether Captain Heathorn left about £20,000 for charities (Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 17 February 1911).

The 1911 census, taken on 2 April, more than two months after Captain Heathorn's death, shows valet Frederck Nicholls still living at 10 Wilton Place with his wife Louisa Anne Nicholls, and their eight-year-old son Frederick Edward Nicholls. The couple had been married for three years.