Royal Air Force
Archibald George Thornhill was born at Lower Cam in 1892 and was the son of Edwin, who was a chimney sweep and Hannah Thornhill.
At the time of the 1911 Census Archibald was employed as a comb grinder which is a role within part of the steel processing process at the firm of R A Lister in Dursley.
It is possible that he had had some military training prior to the war as his Medal Index Card at the National Archives states that he was originally a Sergeant in the 9TH (Service) Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment, with the service number 12868.
He went with the battalion to France on 22 September 1915. The Service Battalions were part of Lord Kitchener’s New Army and men with previous military training would have been invaluable as NCOs, to assist the training of the new recruits who volunteered early in the war.
Unfortunately his Service Record has not survived the bombing raid which destroyed two-thirds of the Army records from the Great War in 1940.
The 9th Glosters were despatched to the Salonika front in November 1915 where they faced the Bulgarian Army for the remainder of the war.
According to a report in the Cheltenham Chronicle of 24 May 1919 Sergeant Thornhill served in Salonika. His Royal Flying Corps (RFC)/Royal Air Force (RAF) Record at the National Archives (NA File AIR 76/505) states that he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant Flying Officer on 14 December 1917.
He probably applied to join the RFC sometime in 1917, as the above record indicates that on 15 October of that year he was in Egypt. The fact he was commissioned when in Egypt is supported by the above newspaper report.
He appears to have flown a variety of aircraft; his record mentions the BE2c, BE2e, DH6, RE8 and the ‘Avro’ since joining the RFC. The above newspaper report states that he had survived the war without a scratch and had flown on the Salonika Front with ‘considerable ability’ for two years.
Archibald died as a result of a flying accident at Old Sarum airfield, near Salisbury on 13 May 1919 at the age of 27.
Old Sarum was the base of 11 Training Squadron but it is not known which aircraft type he was flying at the time. Reports in the Gloucester Journal of 17 May 1919 and Cheltenham Chronicle of 24 May 1919 throw light on the circumstances of his death. Evidently he had taken off with a fellow officer, who was undergoing flying training. When a few hundred feet up something occurred with the aircraft which saw it crash to the ground on the edge of the aerodrome, killing both occupants instantly.
Thornhill was considered a good pilot, particularly good at landings.
His remains were brought from Salisbury Plain and he was buried with full military honours. He was popular locally and according to the newspaper the funeral was ‘the largest ever seen in the parish’.
Archibald had married Violet Margaret Blanche Robinson on 28 April 1919 at St Bartholomew’s Church, Cam just over a fortnight before he was killed.
She came from Illerton, Prestbury, near Cheltenham and the couple lived at Edney Cottage, Cam.
His widow did not re-marry until 1934 some 15 years after Archibald’s death.
He was buried in the churchyard of Lower Cam (St Bartholomew) the church where he was married, where a family stone cross headstone now marks the grave.
Research by Graham Adams 28 April 2014 (revised)