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Rainsford, Laurence K.

Lawrence K. Rainsford U.S. Army WWII
Lawrence K. Rainsford U.S. Army WWII
 
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Date of Birth: 6/10/1915
Died On: 12/3/1993 Last Residence: 13346 Hamilton, Madison, New York
Street Address: 135 Highland Road
Service Number: unknown
Branch of Service: U.S. Army - 10th Mountain Division


Veteran Code: USARMY-523


BIOGRAPHY Extended Information
 
Laurence K. Rainsford


Laurence Kerr Rainsford was born on June 10, 1915, in New York to Helen Morgan, age 26, and Lawrence Frederick Rainsford, age 34. In Rye his family lived at 135 Highland Road and were members of Christ's Church.

He attended St Georges School Newport RI, Rye Country Day School and Milton School in Rye. In 1938 obtained Bachelor of Science degree at Harvard. He received his degree of Doctor of Medicine from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in 1942.

His brother Lieutenant Mark Rainsford in the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers was killed on July 28, 1943. A passenger on
American Airlines Flight 63 from Cleveland to Memphis, a DC-3, crashed and burned on a farm near Trammel Post Office, Allen County, Kentucky, twenty miles southeast of Bowling Green.

Laurence would serve as an officer in the U.S. Army during World War II. He had completed a two-year medical appointment as an Intern at Roosevelt Hospital New York and had been commissioned a first lieutenant In the Army Medical Corps. In 1944 he served with the 10th Mountain Division and rose to the rank of captain.

Rye Men in Mountain Division Making War History in Italy
A number of Rye men are in the U. S. 10th Mountain Division ski troops which has been making war history in Italy this past week. The Division repulsed a strong German counterattack in the Bologna area. Some of the Rye men who have been trained with this outfit, are believed to be in this latest sortie. They include Captain Laurence Rainsford in the Medical unit, son of Dr. and Mrs. Laurence Rainsford, Blind Brook Lodge.

These men have undergone a rigorous, specialized training program before going overseas. The curriculum of the mountain infantry is to dig into a snow bank and wait; take long marches through a cutting wind at a temperature well below zero; eat, sleep, work and live in the bitterness of the cold and wet.

They have to be mule packers, rock climbers and mountaineers in general, because the caissons don't go rolling along in the mountains. All the way, along broken trails cr through soft, knee-deep snow, artillery equipment has to be hand lugged or mule-packed. The snow training is not restricted to the infantry and artillery, but is equally a vital part of the training of the Medics, the Signal Corps and the Engineers.

PAGE EIGHT THE RYE CHRONICLE Friday, March 2, 1945

Laurence Kerr Rainsford died on December 3, 1993, in Hamilton, New York, at the age of 78, and was buried in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

Links to this Veterans History

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