Title: William H. Thorn Collection, 1942-1995
Arrangement
This collection is partially processed. The papers are arranged alphabetically by folder title.
Abstract
William Henry Thorn was an ambulance driver with the American Field Service (AFS) from 1943 to 1944. The William H. Thorn Collection contains correspondence, clippings, and other material related to his service as an ambulance driver with AFS during World War II.
Administrative/Biographical History
William Henry Thorn was born on November 3, 1923, in Brooklyn, New York, to Henry Clare Thorn and Martha Alexandria Thompson. Thorn attended Haverford School in Pennsylvania, Riverdale Country School in New York, and Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut. He later entered Yale University with the Class of 1945.
Thorn applied to become an ambulance driver with the American Field Service (AFS) in October 1942 and was sent overseas in January 1943. He served with the British Ninth Army in Syria and with the American Fifth Army in Italy. He was repatriated to the United States in April 1944 and received the Africa Star for his service with AFS during the war.
Following the war, Thorn settled in Bronxville, New York and had a fifty-year career in the marine insurance industry.
William H. Thorn passed away on May 3, 2009, at age 86.
