The Dentonian
Issue 39
Crown Pointers
Norah Naden Thorley : A Tribute
Flight Sargent Donald Kilner
It was with much sadness that we heard of the death of Norah who passed
away peacefully at home in Denton on September 18th 2001 aged 93 years.
She is survived by son Mike, daughter Sue and grandchildren Anna, Lucy,
Sally and fain. At the funeral service at Denton St. Lawrence, Mike, Sue
and Lucy gave moving eulogies.
Norah was born in Ashton but lived most of her life in Denton. She was
a dancer in her youth forming a touring duo with her sister Freda calling
themselves the Pickford Sisters. She was also a member of the famous Tiller
Girls. Norah was a member of the Denton Local History Society in her early
days and has generously donated a number of historical artefacts to the
Society archives including a Home Guard uniform belonging to her late
husband and a last World War incendiary bomb.
Norah was married to the late Arnold Edward Thorley, a former Managing
Director of Turner Atherton Co. Ltd., who were inventors and hatting engineers.
Some of her husband's relatives lived in Haughton Green and Audenshaw
although his immediate family, father and mother, lived at Northleigh
on Manchester Road, Denton opposite the golf course The house was demolished
to make way for the M60 slip road.
Marion Pilcher and Jill Cronin paid many visits to Norah's home taping
her memories and views of her life in Denton. She also kindly allowed
us to reproduce many of her photographs for inclusion in the Society's
books, particularly of the Turner family homes and views of Audenshaw
and Denton. Some of these views have been included in Jill's recent book
on Audenshaw.
Norah was an enthusiastic gardener and also enjoyed knitting, especially
for charity However, the love of her life was golf. She was born in 1908
(one year before Denton G C.was founded) and became active in the club's
tennis section before becoming a full golfing member in 1935. Her husband,
Arnold, also a keen golfer was the son of Edward Jackson Thorley a founder
member of the club Together with Arnold she enjoyed a full social life
and became a keen and competitive golfer.
Some of her golfing achievements included winning the prestigious Whittaker
Bowl on a record six occasions, three of which were in consecutive years.
She won the Lady Captain's Prize in 1960 and was a member of the D.G.C.
Ladies Team who won the Lancashire Handicap Shield in 1973. At the age
of 74, she won the Joe Askew Trophy and in 1989, together with her partner,
won the Mixed Foursomes Shield at the age of 81. In 1966/67 she became
Lady Captain, an honour which overlapped with the appointment of Arnold
as President.
In 1985, she celebrated 50 years as a full playing member of the club
and was awarded Honorary Membership. At the time of her death, she was
the club's oldest serving member (66 years).
Nora will be very sadly missed by her devoted family and the great number
of friends she made in her full and interesting life.
Jill Cronin
Alan Ward
As in many small towns Denton lost its share of young men during the 1939-45 war. Their names can be found on the various memorials in the town and in the churches. Audenshaw Grammar School has its own Roll of Honour in the main hall and included among the names is that of Donald Kilner who used to live with his parents in Balmoral Drive, Denton. I also used to live in Balmoral Drive where I knew his parents and his brother Gilbert. I also went to Audenshaw and was playing in the school orchestra when the Roll of Honour was unveiled.
Since then I have wondered many times what happened to him and although I made a few discreet enquiries I did not find out anything until the Commonwealth War Graves Commission opened its web site. As many will know this gives details of all those who died in two world wars and I discovered that Donald was buried in a small village called Villars-le Pautel in the Haute Saone region of France. The CWGC site gives the information that he is buried with the rest the crew of the Lancaster bomber which was taking part in a raid over Germany on the night of 15/16thMarch 1944. His plane took off from Royal Air Force Station ,Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire and was part of a force of 863 aircraft which was briefed to attack Stuttgart.
The village where the crew are buried is situated in lovely countryside of the Haute Saone region and the graves are beautifully kept by the local commune who see it as their duty to pay hommage to the allied aviators who died for France. Perhaps one the purposes of this short article is to remind us of those who did not return. There are other names on the Roll of Honour at Audenshaw and if anybody has done any research I should be pleased to hear about it.
Harry Chamberlain
Source of Information www.cwgc.org Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Firstly, our DLHS web-site is now up and running,
http://dentonlocalhistorysociety.co.uk .We hope that as the web-site
is developed and up-dated, it will be a great boon to us, and especially
our more distant members.If you use any other web-sites which you think
would be of interest to other members, please let us know, so that we
can give details in a future edition. Our thanks to Patrick Nestor,
a friend of Simon Cronin, who has set the site up for us. Have you tried; www.freindsreunited.co.uk You may find some of your old school pals, amongst others!
Secondly, details of meetings:
I get quite a lot of enquiries from members asking when the next meeting
is, or what is on when! The programme is published in The Dentonian,
and is also on the Membership Card. Please keep them handy. You will,
of course, also be able to check on the web-site! If you do not have
a yellow coloured programme card, for 2001-2, then it is most probable
that your subs are not up to date, and you should contact Gerry Cartwright,
320 0319, as soon as possible.