John William Thornley (19 September 1885 â 31 March 1918) was an English amateur footballer who played in the Football League for Glossop as a forward.
Thornley was born in September 1885 in Hayfield, Derbyshire to Thomas and Henrietta Thornley and was baptised the following March in Whitfield, Derbyshire. His elder brother Irvine was also a footballer. In 1915, during the second year of the First World War, Thornley enlisted as a private in the Cheshire Regiment. He was wounded at the Battle of St Quentin and died of his wounds on 31 March 1918. Thornley was buried in Wimereux Communal Cemetery.