Name
Geoffrey Holland Thornhill
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
10/05/1917
28
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lieutenant
Royal Warwickshire Regiment
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
RICKMANSWORTH (CHORLEYWOOD ROAD) CEMETERY
FF. 3. 28.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Rickmansworth UDC Memorial,
St Mary’s Church Roll of Honour, Rickmansworth,
Northwood War Memorial, Middx.,
Holy Trinity Church, Northwood, Middx.
Pre War
Geoffrey Thornhill was born 1888 in Primrose Hill, London, son of Edward Baylies, who was the Chief Engineer of the London and North Western Railway Company, and Mary Elizabeth (Walker) Thornhill of Chase Side, Rickmansworth.
In 1901, aged 12, he was a pupil at Lake House School, Bexhill and was the youngest of 6 brothers to attend Sutton Valence Grammar School in Kent from 1905-1907. He later studied civil engineering at University College, London where he also belonged to the OTC. In 1911, he was living with his parents and younger sister, Mildred, at The Hatch, Northwood, in an 11 roomed house with 3 servants. He was described as a Civil engineering pupil with the London and North Western Railway Company.
The London Gazette April 1913 states that Geoffrey Holland Thornhill, late cadet, University of London Contingent OTC was promoted to be 2nd Lieutenant.’ He worked in the Engineer’s office at Euston and later the Netherton Iron Works, Dudley. He was unmarried.
His father died in 1911 and his mother, Mary Elizabeth, who lived at Chase Side
Nightingale Road, Rickmansworth died in 1945.
Wartime Service
Geoffrey Thornhill was gazetted 2nd Lieutenant on 7/08/1914 and soon promoted to Lieutenant. He was in the British Expeditionary Force, arriving in France on 22 August 1914.
He spent 32 days in the front
trenches without a rest in the winter of 1914. In the thick of the fighting, he
was wounded twice and invalided home in January 1915 having also contracted
rheumatism. He recovered sufficiently to be put in charge of a Labour Company,
2nd (Labour) Bn, first in the Isle of Wight and then at Didcot. Whilst there he
was taken ill with pneumonia on 6th May 1917 and died at Somerville Hospital,
Oxford 4 days later, aged 28.
Additional Information
Geoffrey grave (not CWGC) bears the inscription:
TO THE BELOVED MEMORY OF GEOFFREY HOLLAND THORNHILL, M.I.C.E.
LIEUTENANT ROYAL WARWICKSHIRE REGIMENT,
WHO DIED MAY 10TH 1917, AGED 28.
DEEPLY MOURNED. FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH
Acknowledgments
Pat Hamilton
Malcolm Lennox, Sutton Valence School,University of London OTC Roll of War Service and Roll of the Fallen, UK Civil Engineers List, Pat Hamilton
