Born on 31 August 1826, he was the eldest son of the Rev. William Thursby and Eleanor Mary Hargreaves. His father was vicar of
All Saints' Church, Northampton at that time. He had one older sister and five younger brothers, and was educated at
Eton College. As a teenager, at Easter 1843, he assisted Studley Martin in excavating an ancient burial site on the
moors east of
Burnley, Lancashire. The interment urn that they discovered, remained with the family. Thursby's sister Eleanor Anne died, aged 19, in early April 1845. joining as
Ensign in September 1845, and obtaining the rank of
Lieutenant in November 1848. In the build-up to the
Crimean War, in June 1853, he briefly joined the
1st Royal Lancashire Militia (The Duke of Lancaster's Own) as
Captain, before moving to the (newly-raised)
7th Royal Lancashire Militia (Rifles) as
Major in April 1855. Staying with the
Bury-based regiment until March 1870, the following November he took over command of the Burnley-based
5th Royal Lancashire Militia with the rank of
Lieutenant-Colonel. The next September, he was given the honorary rank of Colonel, and he retained the command until retirement at the end of July 1879. He then became the regiment's
Honorary Colonel. 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. Thursby was a major benefactor in the Burnley area. He provided the site for the Victoria Hospital, paid for works on
St John the Evangelist's Church, Worsthorne, and provided a large plot of land for a public park for the town,
Queen's Park, Burnley. Thursby was a
justice of the peace for
Lancashire and chairman of the Burnley
petty sessions. He was
High Sheriff of Lancashire in the
Golden Jubilee year of 1887, and in the same year was created a
Baronet, of Ormerod House in the Parish of
Burnley in the
County Palatine of Lancaster and of Holmhurst in the Parish of Christchurch in the County of Southampton, on 26 July 1887. He was made
deputy lieutenant for Lancashire in 1888. Thursby was most famous as a sportsman. He was a member of the
Four-in-Hand and Coaching Clubs. He possessed a fine shooting estate in Scotland at
Panmure House in
Angus, of which he was tenant. He was also a hunter and a
master of the foxhounds in the western part of the
New Forest. Thursby was little involved in politics, but was a
Conservative and a member of the
Carlton Club.
Sir John Thursby Community College in Burnley is named after him. ==Family==