Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Thomas Wyon
WYON, Thomas (1792–1817), medallist, was born at Birmingham in 1792. He was apprenticed to his father, the chief engraver of His Majesty's seals, and studied in the schools of the Royal Academy, London, where he gained silver medals in both the antique and the life class; he also obtained a gold medal from the Society of Arts. He was appointed probationary engraver to the mint in 1811, and soon after engraved his medal commemorative of the peace, and his Manchester Pitt medal. In 1815 he was appointed chief engraver to the mint; but he sank into ill-health, and died at Hastings on September 22, 1817, at the age of twenty-five.
A memoir of Wyon, with a list of his works, appeared in the Gentleman’s Magazine for February 1818. His younger brother, Benjamin Wyon (1802–1858), and his nephews, Joseph Shepherd Wyon (1836–1873) and Alfred Benjamin Wyon (1837–1884), were also well-known medallists. They successively held the appointment of chief engraver of Her Majesty's seals.