John Albert Thorburn graduated as Bachelor of Veterinary Science (BVSc) at the Veterinary Faculty of Pretoria University College at Onderstepoort in 1928. From January 1929 he served as government veterinary officer in the Division of Veterinary Services and was stationed in Pietermaritzburg (1929), at the Onderstepoort Research Institute (Pretoria), in the Northern Cape, Zululand, Peddie (in the Transkei), Grahamstown and, from March 1942, East London, until 1945. During this period he published, among others, a paper dealing with Chase Valley Disease - the toxic effect on ruminants of Cestrum laevigatum (Fam. Solanaceae), or inkberry plant - which was published in the Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Science and Animal Industry (1934) and another on tuberculosis in the Cape Kudu in the Journal of the South African Veterinary Association (1940).
Thorburn became a member of the South African Veterinary Medical Association in 1929. Upon resigning his post in 1945 he joined the firm Cooper and Nephews as technical advisor until his retirement in September 1968. Later papers by him dealt with the use of "Gammexane" against infestations of ectoparasites (1947), the control of ectoparasites of domestic stock with "toxaphene" (1952) and the control of worms in domestic animals (1956), all in the Journal of the South African Veterinary Association.
