John William Thorley and Alice Maud Thorley nee Bate
John William Thorley was the eldest son of John Thorley, Stoneleigh policeman, and Maria nee Wallbank. Father John was transferred to Stoneleigh, first from Nuneaton, where John William (usually known as Jack) was born on 8 April 1893, and then from Bishop's Tachbrook. The family, now with six children, had come to live at the Police House on Birmingham Road by 1910, when the younger siblings were first admitted to Stoneleigh School.
Jack worked as a carpenter on the estate and was a reservist in the Warwickshire Yeomanry, which he then had to join at the outbreak of war, despite having been married just a fortnight earlier. He spent his war in the UK, however, working with horses. His two brothers also served, although Samuel Ernest died of wounds received at Gallipoli in 1915, and is commemorated on the Stoneleigh church war memorial.
Jack had married Alice Bate on 13 July 1914, and the couple went on to have two daughters, Alice and Margaret. By 1939 they lived in the Reading Room Cottages on The Square, and Jack had continued to work as a carpenter and joiner. He was also a special constable. He died on 30 July 1951.
Alice Bate's date of birth is given on the 1939 register as 17 May 1881, although she may have given her age incorrectly, since she appears aged one in the 1881 census in Birmingham, the daughter of Joseph and Sarah Bate. Joseph was a chandelier maker. Few other details are certain about her background. She died on 31 March 1955.
Their daughters Alice Muriel Thorley and Margaret Hancox are also buried in the churchyard, at
B20.5 and
B12.11 respectively.
Jack's brother George Henry Thorley is buried at
C4.12 and his sister Una Thorley at
B18.5. His sister Ida Harriet Thorley is buried at
E 14.3 and his parents are buried next to her at
E 14 4 and
E 14 5. Altogether there are 17 members of the Thorley family buried or commemorated at Stoneleigh.