19. BACK ROW FINISHER - James Derek Thirlwell DFC OBE – LIFE STORY TOLD IN THE IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM

James Derek Thirlwell was born in Sunderland in 1919 and died in North Walsham in 2004. He played back row for the club in the years prior to the war. His father was manager of a flour mill and the family home was in Rowlandson Terrace. He seems to have started the war in the Royal Engineers attached to the DLI  and to have moved to be a pilot officer in the RAF in March 1940. By the age of 25 he had become an acting squadron leader. He moved to India and for most of 1942 served in a Photo Reconnaissance unit over India and Burma. He was heavily involved in the Burma campaign with Orde-Wingate 1942 -44 and received a DFC as a result. The award was for leading aerial sorties in Burma during bad weather and in the face of intense enemy opposition. He contracted hepatitis and returned home for the remainder of the war. After the war he held  the rank of wing commander and was awarded an OBE in 1957.

The Imperial War Museum has a  recording of an interview covering his whole life story.

Interview with James Derek Thirlwell | Imperial War Museums for further details.