Titcomb, John Abbot, 1910-1945

Titcomb, John Abbot, son of Harold Abbot Titcomb, mining engineer, of Farmington, Maine, USA, and Ethel, d. olJames Brignall of Wallington, Surrey; b. 27 Oct. 1910; adm. Jan. 1925 (R); left July 1929; Dartmouth Coll., BA 1932; Yale Univ. 1933-5; a mining engineer; Newmont Mining Corpn New York; US Marine Corps in WW2 (Capt.); rn. 3 Feb. 1940Janet, d. of Arthur Burling Foote of Grass Valley, California; d. I Mar. 1945 of wounds received in action, at Luzon, Philippines.

John Abbott “Jack” Titcomb was born at Newton, Massachusetts on the 27th of October 1910 the elder son of Harold Abbott Titcomb, a mining engineer, and Ethel (nee Brignall) Titcomb of High Street, Farmington, Maine and of 60, Addison Road, Kensington in London. He was educated at Westminster School where he was up Rigaud’s from January 1925 to July 1929 and won the Junior Rouse Ball Prize for Mathematics in 1928. He rowed at bow for the 2nd IV in 1928. He went on to Dartmouth College where he studied Mining and Geology and graduated with a BA in 1932. He then studied at the Sheffield Mining School at Yale from 1933 to 1935 and later studied in Yugoslavia. On leaving university he worked for the Newmont Mining Corporation of New York and was an active member of the Ledyard Canoe Club. He was a skiing instructor and a ski racer.
He was married at Emanuel Church, Grass Valley, California on the 3rd of February 1940 to Janet Stanwood (nee Foote, later Micoleau). They had a daughter, Marian, born on the 11th of July 1942 and a son, Peter Abbot, born on the 9th of May 1944.
He was acting as the head of a Marine air-ground liaison party on Luzon in the Philippines when he was shot and killed by a Japanese sniper at San Fernando, La Union. He was awarded a posthumous Silver Star with Gold Star.
His father donated land in his memory for the Titcomb Memorial Ski Slope (now Titcomb Mountain) in Maine, which was named in his honour in 1949.
He is commemorated on a plaque at the base ski lodge at Titcomb Mountain.
He is buried at Manila American Cemetery and Memorial Plot A, Row 9, Grave 164.

Captain; United States Marine Corps

International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) 2nd edition

Prepared for import into AtoM by Westminster School Archive staff, 2019-2020. Updated by Bethany Duck, Archives Assistant, September 2022.

The Record of Old Westminsters: A biographical list of all those who are known to have been educated at Westminster School from Play 1919 to Election 1989, Volume 4, compiled by F.E. Pagan and H.E. Pagan, Padstow, 1992.

Westminster School Second World War Memorial by John C. Hamblin, 2022.