Canon John Thomas Thorn
John Thomas Thorn was born on 17 September 1830 in Barrow, Shropshire, the oldest child of John Thorn and Penelope Jane nee Onions.
He was educated at Christ Church Oxford and was ordained in 1855. By 1861 he was a clergyman at Inverkip in Renfrewshire. When he became vicar of Stoneleigh he followed the Hon. Rev. James Wentworth Leigh in that office. He was Rector of Ashow in the 1871 census, and was vicar of Stoneleigh from Autumn 1873 until his death on 24 May 1906. He was Honorary Canon of Worcester from 1889.
He married
Emily Frances Baxter (
D26.24) in Stourbridge in mid- 1858, but she died aged just 44 in 1879 and they had no children.
A shy man essentially, he was nevertheless a great servant to the church at Stoneleigh and was particularly involved in the work of Stoneleigh School. Newspapers reporting his death remarked upon how well-loved he had been by his parishioners. He was president of the village club, secretary of the Friendly Society and a trustee of Sotherne's Charity. His principal work outside the village was connected with the Warneford Hospital in Leamington, resulting in that institution being better equipped than any other of its size.
The headmaster, William Wells, wrote in the school logbook that:
From the time that Canon Thorn first came to Stoneleigh in the autumn of 1873 until the present week he has taken an active interest in everything connected with the school and its work.
The earlier records show that he took no small part in the teaching, secular as well as religious. Since I have been Master, for a number of years he took a class regularly for several mornings a week in religious instruction, but in later years the Vicar took examinations only, at frequent intervals. For the school's success in the Prize Scheme Examinations teachers and scholars are much indebted to him for his valuable help. His kindness, sympathy and support will ever endear him to our memory; his whole character was a noble example to us all.
He was buried at Stoneleigh on 28 May 1906. There is a memorial to him inside the church, above the pulpit from which he had preached for 33 years.