Tracey Emin

Thorndon featured prominently in the 8th series of Who Do You Think You Are? It covered the ancestry of the artist  Tracey Emin.  Researching into her maternal side she was shocked to discover in the  1891 Census  that her great grandfather  Henry Hodgkins was sentenced for stealing two brass taps; he served 10 days in prison followed by three years at  Kerrison Reformatory  in Thorndon.  The enforced move from the deprivation of the East End of London to the peace of the Suffolk countryside appeared to have a beneficial effect.  He received three hours of schooling each day and went on to be a satisfactory inmate, however, on his release he was dissuaded from his desire to emigrate to Canada by his friends and subsequently committed a burglary for which he was sentenced to 6 months hard labour at Chelmsford Gaol.  Happily, this was to be his last time of offending and he lived an exemplary life to the age of 85 years, dying in 1962.

For more information visit the Who Do You Think You Are? magazine