William Knapp Thorn

William Knapp Thorn, Jr. (April 10, 1848 – November 16, 1910) was an American champion polo player and the grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt.

[3] Thorn participated in the 1886 International Polo Cup with teammates Foxhall Parker Keene and Thomas Hitchcock, Sr. Thorn hunted at Pau, France beginning in 1887 along with his cousin Alfred Torrance, who had hunted there from 1882.

Thorn's aunt, Sophia Johnson Vanderbilt Torrance also had a villa at Pau (now demolished).

He and Georges Nitot founded the Automobile-club of Bearn, which organised the first motor races in the southwest of France in 1899.

Thorn died in Pau on November 16, 1910 and was interred at Green-Wood Cemetery on January 9, 1911.