An architect’s son from Wantage
Thomas William Shore was born in Wantage on 5 April 1840, the son of William Shore, an architect, and Susannah Carter. Little is recorded about his childhood in the town, but he grew up in the years when the railway had just reached Wantage Road and the town was changing quickly. In 1861 he married Amelia Lewis; they had two sons, both of whom became doctors and scientists, and three daughters.
Science education and Southampton
Shore’s working life was spent in the Victorian movement to bring science and technical education to ordinary people. Around 1864 he became organising secretary of the East Lancashire Union of Institutions at Burnley, and in 1867 the government’s Science and Art Department sent him to report on scientific education at the Paris Exhibition. In 1873 he was appointed secretary of the Hartley Institution in Southampton, forerunner of the University of Southampton, and curator of its museum, later becoming its executive officer.
Geologist and antiquary
He became an authority on the geology and early history of Hampshire and was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society in 1878. In 1885 he founded the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society, which still exists, and served as its honorary secretary for the rest of his life. His books include a Guide to Southampton and Neighbourhood (1882) and A History of Hampshire (1892). After moving to London he founded the Balham Antiquarian Society in 1896.
His last major work, Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race, argued that the English descended from a wider mix of peoples than the simple Angles-Saxons-Jutes story allowed; it was completed by his sons and published after his death. He died at Balham on 15 January 1905 and was buried at Woolston, Southampton.
Locally
No memorial to Shore exists in Wantage. The Vale and Downland Museum’s research library is the place to look for his father William Shore’s buildings in the town, which have not been identified for this entry.