Percy Thrower

Percy John Thrower MBE (30 January 1913 – 18 March 1988) was a British gardener, horticulturist, broadcaster and writer born at Horwood House in the village of Little Horwood in Buckinghamshire.

He became nationally known through presenting various gardening programmes, starting in 1956 on the BBC's Gardening Club then later on the BBC's Gardeners' World from 1969 until 1976. He has been described as "Britain's first celebrity gardener", although that accolade is often accorded to C. H. Middleton who was a significant figure before and during the Second World War.

The name Thrower means someone who twists the fibre – properly wool – into thread or yarn. This term is peculiar to East Anglia, where Percy’s father worked as a gardener at Bawdsey Manor, Suffolk, before moving to Horwood House near Bletchley (now part of Milton Keynes) in Buckinghamshire as head gardener. Percy Thrower was determined from an early age to be a head gardener like his father, and worked under him at Horwood House for the first four years after leaving school. He then became a journeyman gardener in 1931, at the age of 18, at the Royal Gardens at Windsor Castle, on £1 a week. He lived in the bothy at Windsor, along with 20 other improver gardeners and disabled ex-servicemen who were employed on full wages. The bothy housed only single men and if you "had" to get married you lost your job. He spent five years there under the head gardener, Charles Cook, who was subsequently to become his father-in-law.

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