DOB/DOD: May 15, 1926 (New York, NY) – March 6, 1945; 18 years old
MARITAL STATUS: Unmarried
LOCAL ADDRESS: Hotchkiss School, Lakeville/Hartford
ENLISTMENT: June 29, 1944, in Los Angeles, California
SERVICE NUMBER: 955610
UNIT: 28th Replacement Draft, 3rd Marine Division
MILITARY OCCUPATIONAL SPECIALTY: 0521, Basic Marine
FAMILY: The only child of Dr. John Dooley Lyttle (1889-1948) and Charlotte Watrous Lyttle (1892-1949). John Lyttle was a Captain in the Medical Corps during World War I. He was also a professor of pediatrics at the University of Southern California and the director of the Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles. No siblings. 1, 2 Cousin of PFC John Burleson Lyttle, U.S. Marine Corps, 3rd Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division, who was wounded in action in the Battle of Iwo Jima and is the recipient of the Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart Medal.
CIRCUMSTANCES: Boot camp in San Diego, California, in July 1944. Assigned to the 4th Infantry Training Regiment, 9th Training Battalion, Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, California, in the fall of 1944. Assigned to the 3rd Marine Division, 28th Replacement Draft in January 1945. 5 Nature and manner of his death are unknown.
Hotchkiss High School (Hartford, CT) Class of ‘44
From The New York Times on August 14, 1945
Private Thornton Hunt Lyttle of the Marines, the only child of Dr. and Mrs. John D. Lyttle of Los Angeles and formerly of 439 East Fifty-first Street, was killed in action on March 6 on Iwo Island, the Navy Department has informed his family. He was serving with the Third Marine Division. Born in New York eighteen years ago, he attended the Eaglebrook School, Deerfield, Massachusetts, the Buckley School here, and graduated cum laude from the Hotchkiss School at Lakeville, Connecticut, in May 1944. He was president of his graduating class, chairman of Nischianza, the school yearbook, was on the school soccer, ski, and track teams, and was chosen by his class as its wittiest and most original member. He was interested in painting, won the school art prize three years in succession, had a Harvard scholarship, and intended to study architecture. His father, a physician, is head of the Pediatric Department at the University of Southern California. Private Lyttle was a grandson of Mrs. George D. Watrous of New Haven, Connecticut.
From The New York Daily News on August 16, 1945
Private Thornton Hunt Lyttle, 18, formerly of 439 East 51st Street, was killed March 6 while fighting with the 3rd Marine Division on Iwo Jima, the Navy Department has informed his parents, Dr. and Mrs. John D. Lyttle of Los Angeles. He was a graduate of the Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, Connecticut, and a grandson of socially prominent Mrs. George D. Watrous of New Haven, Connecticut.
Initially interred in the 3rd Marine Division Cemetery on Iwo Jima, Row 23, Grave 552. At his father’s request, he was buried on February 21, 1949, 4 in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl), 2177 Puowaina Drive, Honolulu, Hawaii; Section N, Grave 347. 6 Photo from FindAGrave.com. 3
1 – 1930 census https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6224/
2 – 1940 census https://www.ancestry.com/cs/1940-census
3 – https://findagrave.com
4 – http://www.interment.net
5 – USMC Muster Rolls: https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1089/
6 – USMC Casualty Report received via FOIA request