# Thomas Crich — Women in Love character guide

> Thomas Crich in Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Thomas, Love Thomas Crich, Mr. Crich, Poor Mr. Crich

**First appearance:** 0001-ii-shortlands

## Snapshot

A dying mine owner who has spent a lifetime converting his fortune into kindness, leaving his son Gerald to inherit an industry and a conscience he cannot reconcile.

## Who they are

Thomas Crich is the patriarch of Shortlands, a colliery owner whose charitable impulse toward his miners has made him beloved and, in his son's eyes, weak. His long illness hangs over the family, and his insistence on loving his workers rather than mastering them has left Gerald with an industrial machine and no belief in the order it upholds. His slow dying is the quiet pressure beneath the Crich household, shaping Gerald's numbness and the novel's questions about what a man passes on.

## Relationships

### [Gudrun Brangwen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/women_in_love_se/characters/gudrun_brangwen)

_social_

Distant, formal interactions as Gudrun observes the dying patriarch of the Crich family.

### [Ursula Brangwen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/women_in_love_se/characters/ursula_brangwen)

_social_

Brief, formal interactions as Ursula visits the Crich household.

### [Gudrun Brangwen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/women_in_love_se/characters/gudrun_brangwen)

_social_

Distant, formal interactions as Gudrun observes the dying patriarch of the Crich family.

### [Ursula Brangwen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/women_in_love_se/characters/ursula_brangwen)

_social_

Brief, formal interactions as Ursula visits the Crich household.

### [Gudrun Brangwen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/women_in_love_se/characters/gudrun_brangwen)

_social_

Distant, formal interactions as Gudrun observes the dying patriarch of the Crich family.

## In the story

### [The Industrial Magnate](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/women_in_love_se/chapters/xvii-the-industrial-magnate)

Thomas Crich is a fading, charitable figure who withdraws from the world as Gerald takes over the firm.

### [Rabbit](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/women_in_love_se/chapters/xviii-rabbit)

Introduces Gudrun to Winifred and approves her role as tutor.

### [Threshold](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/women_in_love_se/chapters/xxi-threshold)

Lies dying, maintains self-possession and control, and shares a tender moment with Winifred about giving flowers to Gudrun.

### [Death and Love](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/women_in_love_se/chapters/xxiv-death-and-love)

Thomas lies dying, his will unbroken, his presence a torment to Gerald. He is barely conscious, yet his dark, decomposing eyes still hold a grain of vision.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/women_in_love_se/characters/thomas_crich
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/women_in_love_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/women_in_love_se/characters