Geoffrey Thornley Coxon was the son of John William Coxon, a manufacturing chemist born in Westoe, and his second wife, Florence.

John's first wife, Mary Charlotte, had died in 1889, and soon afterwards he had taken their children to New Jersey, USA, where they were living in 1890. They were back in Britain in 1891, and in 1892 he had married Florence Clegg.

John and Florence had two sons, Augustine (1893) and Geoffrey (1896), but in around 1898 John returned to the USA, leaving Florence and their two sons in South Shields.

Both boys joined the High School in 1904, and both left in 1907 as the fees were proving too expensive for their mother.

Geoffrey went on to attend St John's Higher Grade School, while Augustine went to Westoe Road.

When Geoffrey left school, he became an apprentice at a chemist's shop.

At some point he visited the USA (possibly to visit his father, who was living in Georgia at the time) and on 1-May-1915 boarded the RMS Lusitiania in New York to return to Britain.

As the ship was approaching Ireland, it was sunk by a single torpedo from a German U-boat and Geoffrey was one of the many passengers who were killed.

His brother, Augustine, lived until his death in South Shields, in 1953.