John Egerton Thorpe was born in Buckingham, Buckinghamshire, England on 7 February 1874. He was articled to Walter Edward Mills (1851-1910) in Oxford from 1893 to 1893 and remained with him as his assistant until 1910. He also attended Banbury School of Art where he became Assistant Master.
Thorpe commenced independent practice as an architect in Oxford in 1910. In c.1912 he formed a partnership with Frederick Evelyn Openshaw (1881-1957) who had been his assistant since 1910.
Thorpe was elected a Licentiate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (LRIBA) in 1912. Drawings and plans of a house designed by him are illustrated in Designs for One Hundred Ideal £1,000 Houses. Being copies of the hundred best designs entered in the 1912 Daily Mail Architects' Competition (1912 p.106). Following World War One, he was a member of a panel of Oxford architects engaged on a municipal housing scheme.
His address was given as 68 Holywell Street, Oxford in 1911 and 1926; 18 George Street, Oxford Street, Oxford in 1912, 65 St. Giles, Oxford in 1930 and 1939; and Merryfall, Fawler, Charlbury, Oxfordshire and 1961. He died in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire on 28 October 1961
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 2: L-Z. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001