| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Roland was born in Hull in Mar 1894, the son of William T Thornton and Rebecca. William was a horse trainer and steeplechase jockey and Rebecca was a teacher before they married. In 1901 the family living in Norwood, Beverley. In 1911 Roland living at Pounds Farm, Lambourn, Berkshire at the racing stables of Captain H B Purefoy, one of eighteen stable lads employed at the stables.
Roland enlisted in the East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry on 1 Jun 1915, he was later transferred to the Labour Corps. It is also known that he served for the duration of the war in Egypt where he contracted the disease Bilharzia in 1918. Roland was transported back to the UK from Alexandria, via Marseilles and was hospitalised in a Military Hospital in London in Sep 1918. He was demobilised in Feb 1919, and was awarded a Silver War Badge and the British War and Victory medals.
In 1925 he married Amelia Jackson who was a teacher. Amelia lived in Walkergate, Beverley, Roland was in Willow Grove working as a cargo superintendent. In 1939 they were living in Waldegrave Avenue, Hull. Roland died in 1971 aged 77.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |