Gordon Thorne

Gordon Calthrop Thorne DSO (3 March 1897 – 2 March 1942) was an English first-class cricketer and British Army officer. Serving for most of his military career with the Royal Norfolk Regiment, Thorne saw action in the First World War from 1916 to 1918, before serving in British India and British Ceylon, where he served as the 9th Commander of the Ceylon Defence Force from 13 May 1937 until 5 February 1939. He served in the Second World War with the Cambridgeshire Regiment, seeing action during the Japanese invasion of Malaya, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, and in the Battle of Singapore. He escaped capture by the Japanese at Singapore aboard a Dutch steamship, but was killed in March 1942 when it was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in the Indian Ocean. During his military career, he also played first-class cricket for the British Army cricket team.