John Thornton
1911–1944 (age 33)
Biography
John Thornton carried the discipline of a hurdler from his earliest years, training on village tracks and dreaming of Olympic glory even as the shadows of the 1930s lengthened.
When war came, Thornton answered the call to serve, bringing the same measured stride to the battlefield, and he fell in the fierce fighting of 1944; his grave at Banneville-la-Campagne War Cemetery has become a place of quiet gratitude.