Bolitho ( , )Miller, G. M. (1971) BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names. London: Oxford UP; p. 17 is a village in west Cornwall, and a Cornish surname. The Bolitho Family own large estates in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 203 Land's End
The name Bolitho comes from the Cornish language words bos, meaning 'dwelling', and Leythow, a personal name.Akademi Kernewek place names - Bosleythow
There is also a place called Bolitho in the civil parish of Menheniot.Weatherhill, Craig (2009). A Concise Dictionary of Cornish Place-Names. Westport, Co. Mayo: Evertype. ; p. 22
Bolitho family The surname Bolitho derives from this place.Bolitho, T. G. G. (1928) The Origin of the Name Bolitho. Paris: Herbert Clarke Some of the Bolithos were ″merchant princes″, the Bolitho family's growth to prominence started with Thomas Bolitho (1765–1868). The family were initially tanners, who moved into lime-burning and tin smelting before becoming bankers. The Bolitho Bank eventually merged with Barclays in 1905,Cornish magazine and Devon MiscellanyMatthews, W. P. History of Barclays Bank.Pool, P. A. S. History of Penzance, 1974.Gill, Crispin (1995) Great Cornish Families: a history of the people and their houses. Tiverton: Cornwall Books with William Bolitho becoming the director of Barclays. The arms of Bolitho are "Ermine on a plain chevron five bezants between two chevronels engrailed and three fleurs–de–lis Sable", with the motto "Re deu". The Paschal lamb in the borough arms of Penzance derives from the tin smelting mark used by the Bolithos of Gulval.Pascoe, W. H. A Cornish Armory. Padstow: Lodenek Press; pp. 22, 137
The Old Inn, a public house in Gulval Churchtown, was given to the Coldstream Guards Association in memory of Capt. Michael Lempriere Bolitho and renamed "The Coldstreamer" (Capt. Bolitho was killed on HMS Walney, a Royal Navy sloop; her task was to crash through the boom at the entrance to Oran Harbour in Operation Torch on 8 November 1942).
Sergeant Richard Bolitho, born 19 January 1920, was a gunner in World War II and was one of the famous Dambusters of No. 617 Squadron RAF which carried out the raids on the German dams. Bolitho was killed, along with the rest of the crew, when their Avro Lancaster bomber crashed on the outward journey.Richard Bolitho, Dambuster of the Day. https://dambustersblog.com/2013/11/26/dambuster-of-the-day-no-56-richard-bolitho
An independent school at Polwithen House in Penzance, Bolitho School, closed in 2017. It is now the Frances Bolitho Care Home.
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