Flight Lieutenant James Lawrence Anderton was a company director, motorcycle dealer, pilot and RAF officer. James Anderton founded Anderton Bros Motor Cycles Ltd of Bolton, Lancashire with his brother Syl Anderton in 1935. He qualified as a pilot before World War II but was drafted into the RAF Volunteer Reserve at the outbreak of hostilities, and remained in RAF service until the surrender of Japan in September 1945. He served in several RAF squadrons and an Operational Training Unit, as a heavy bomber pilot—flying Vickers Wellingtons and B-24 Liberators. While serving in 37 Squadron he participated in the bombing of the German battleship Gneisenau. When an instructor at No. 21 Operational Training Unit he participated in the first Thousand-Bomber Raid over Cologne, Germany. In 1944, Ande