William Thornton
MM (3 March 1920 – 26 August 1991) was a Scottish
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...
and
manager
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includes the activities o ...
. Thornton's entire senior playing career was spent with
Rangers, and Thornton is considered to be one of the greatest players in the club's history.
Football career
Thornton played for Rangers from 1936 to 1954, then became a manager with first
Dundee
Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...
and then
Partick Thistle
Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. ...
. Thornton later returned to Rangers as assistant manager to
Davie White in the summer of 1968 and was briefly
caretaker manager
In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular Manager (association football), manager is dismissed or leaves for a ...
in 1969 after White's dismissal. Thornton then worked as assistant to
William Waddell until 1972. The club won the two matches when Thornton was in charge. Thornton is one of Scotland's all-time top goalscorers, with 138 league goals.
Military career
Thornton served in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
in the
Scottish Horse
The Scottish Horse was a Yeomanry regiment of the British Army's Army Reserve (United Kingdom), Territorial Army raised in 1900 for service in the Second Boer War. It saw heavy fighting in both the World War I, First World War, as the 13th Battali ...
fighting in the Italian campaign at the
battle of Anzio
The Battle of Anzio was a battle of the Italian Campaign of World War II that took place from January 22, 1944 (beginning with the Allied amphibious landing known as Operation Shingle) to June 5, 1944 (ending with the capture of Rome). The op ...
, and winning the
Military Medal
The Military Medal (MM) was a military decoration awarded to personnel of the British Army and other arms of the armed forces, and to personnel of other Commonwealth countries, below commissioned rank, for bravery in battle on land. The award ...
for his bravery during the
invasion of Sicily
The Allied invasion of Sicily, also known as Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II in which the Allied forces invaded the island of Sicily in July 1943 and took it from the Axis powers ( Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany). It bega ...
. Later in the war, Thornton played football for a
British Eighth Army
The Eighth Army was an Allied field army formation of the British Army during the Second World War, fighting in the North African and Italian campaigns. Units came from Australia, British India, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Free French Forces, ...
team that also included
George Hamilton and
Tom Finney
Sir Thomas Finney (5 April 1922 – 14 February 2014) was an English international footballer who played from 1946 to 1960 as a winger or centre forward for Preston North End and England. He is widely acknowledged to have been one of the spor ...
.
Death
Thornton died on 26 August 1991, aged 71 years old.
Honours
Manager
;Dundee
*
Forfarshire Cup
The Forfarshire Cup is a football competition in Scotland competed for by teams in the Forfarshire Football Association from Angus, Dundee and Perth. The name of the competition is often baffling to some, as "Forfarshire" is an archaic and anglic ...
: 1954–55, 1955–56
References
External links
*
*
1920 births
1991 deaths
Scottish footballers
Scotland men's international footballers
Rangers F.C. players
Dundee F.C. managers
Scottish Football League players
Scottish football managers
Partick Thistle F.C. managers
British Army personnel of World War II
Rangers F.C. non-playing staff
Scottish Horse soldiers
Scottish Football League representative players
Scottish Football League managers
Scotland men's wartime international footballers
Men's association football forwards
Place of death missing
People from Winchburgh
Footballers from West Lothian
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