John Traynor (Royal Marine)

John Traynor, from Liverpool, was a former Royal Marine severely wounded during the First World War. He lived as an invalid until 1923 when, upon his own insistence, he joined with fellow Catholics from the area and journeyed to the Catholic shrines at Lourdes.

Whilst there he suffered from extremely poor health exacerbated by the long, arduous journey. Despite this he stubbornly continued to attended services and visited the baths nine times during this period.

According to accounts given on the afternoon of 25 July when he was in the bath, his paralysed legs became suddenly agitated. Later that day a procession passed by including the Archbishop of Rheims, carrying the Blessed Sacrament. He blessed the assembled pilgrims and John, whose right arm had been paralysed since 1915, blessed himself. Later that evening John awoke from his hospital bed and walked out of his room, to the amazement of those around him. He proceeded to the Grotto and prayed the rosary, not fully realising the significance of the events that were unfolding. By this time, word of his recovery was spreading among those in Lourdes and crowds were gathering wherever he went. Contemporary reports say John himself continued his pilgrimage as if nothing untoward had occurred.

Upon his return to Liverpool, a huge crowd had assembled at Lime Street Station to greet his arrival. John lived out the rest of his life in good health, having started a coal delivery business (the former invalid had no trouble hauling 200 lb bags of coal around the street of Liverpool) and returned to Lourdes many times as a stretcher bearer and was one of the pre-war Presidents of the Liverpool Brancardiers Association. Despite this recovery, he is not listed amongst the verified Lourdes cures and the British Army refused to consider withdrawing his invalidity pensions awarded to him after he was originally wounded.