John Thornley

Bank: District Bank

Place of work: Garstang branch

Died: 13 April 1944

John Thornley was born on 28 January 1912, the son of Herbert and Elizabeth Thornley. He joined the staff of Manchester & Liverpool County Bank as a junior at its Blackpool branch in January 1929. He was later promoted to clerk. In 1935 County Bank, as it was then known, was taken over by District Bank and Thornley became an employee of this bank. He moved to Blackpool South Shore branch in 1937 and to Garstang branch in 1939.  

In July 1940 Thornley left the bank to go on war service, joining the King's Regiment (Liverpool). By 1943 he was in Burma, undertaking special operations duties. In July that year he was reported missing, and just under two years later, in June 1945, it was confirmed that Serjeant Thornley had died while a prisoner of war of the Japanese on 13 April 1944. He was 32 years old and left a widow, Dorothy, and a son. The inscription on his gravestone reads 'In the garden of memories he lives with us yet. Dorothy and Stuart.'