Tony Vernon-Harcourt

Tony Vernon-Harcourt is the great-great-great grandson of Archbishop Vernon-Harcourt and 11th Lord Vernon.

Educated at Eton and Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he read economics and history, Tony worked in industry in Sheffield and Worksop for eight years, before joining Cooper Brothers (now PWC) as a consultant. Tony was head of HR for a City bank for ten years. In 1980 he founded his own business advising on board and senior management pay. Following the sale of the business to PWC in 2002, he retired to research and write family history.  

His biography of his maternal great-great grandfather, Archibald Sturrock:  Pioneer Locomotive Engineer was published in 2007. Yorkshire Engine Company, Sheffield’s Locomotive Manufacturer, a business founded by Sturrock, was published in 2008. This was followed by research into the life of his paternal great grandfather, Leveson Francis Vernon-Harcourt, Professor of Civil Engineering at University College, London and author of many books on river and canal navigations, for the International Journal For the History of Engineering & Technology.

Tony completed a book on his mother’s life for her 100th birthday before turning his attention to Archbishop Harcourt. Although Archbishop for 40 years, no biography existed and the few articles which had been published gave contrasting opinions on his effectiveness as Archbishop. Only by undertaking his own research could Tony establish a full picture of Archbishop Harcourt’s professional and family life.