Family :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

Natural causes is attributed those deaths due to causes that were not directly associated with the war. Included in this are wartime deaths resulting from, for example, theSpanish Influenza pandemic and its associated pneumonia problems and other attributions such as age and exhaustion. It also groups those who through Post Traumatic Stress committed suicide as a result of their experiences.

Detail :

Second Lieutenant Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) 5th Bn. Previously served as 2222, Sergeant in the same regiment.

H.T. Thornton enlisted into the Territorials (Royal West Kent Regt) at the outbreak of war. He never served abroad. In December 1915 he was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant at Bromley Admin Centre.

He died at home on 25 Jan 1916 and was buried with full military honours, is listed on the Beckenham war memorial, appears on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database and his family received a plaque & scroll.

Kent & Sussex Courier 28th January 1916 "Lieutenant H.T. Thornton of the 5th Royal West Kent, who has died from Influenza, is the eldest son of the proprietor of the "Beckenham Journa." At the last annual meeting of the Institue of Journalists he was elected Vice-President with a view of following his father in the chair when the war is over. In journalistic and Masonic circles Lieutenant Thornton's death will be greatly regretted."

Newspaper Article Source unknown : "With full military honours the funeral took place on Monday at Beckenham Parish Church of Second-Lieutenant Hedley T. Thornton, 5th Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment, and son of Mr. T.W. Thornton, editor and proprietor of the "Beckenham Journal." The deceased officer, who was extremely popular, was associated with his father in business, and in pre-war days was a sergean in the same battalion in which he has passed away as an officer. He was in his 34th year."

It is not surprising that the news was reported in a good number of newspapers including the Norwood News on 28th January 1916 and West Sussex Gazette on 3rd February 1916, but the lengthiest was that of the West Sussex Gazette of the 4th Februay 1916, which reads, in part, as follows:

"FUNERAL OF LT. H.T. THORNTON. - "Residents of Beckenham and distric manifested on Monday the widest and deepest sympathy in the early death of Lieut. H.T. Thornton. The parish church was taxed to its utmost capacity for accommodation and the streets were lined several deep with those anxious to pay a tribute of respect to one whose memory will long be revered. A few minutes before three o'clock, the cortege left Clevedon House, the lead being taken by the firing party carrying arms reversed, and following this came the band of the "A" company of the 3rd Battalion West Kent Volunteer Fencibles. As the Union Jack covered coffin, borne on a wheeled bier, came from the house, the military party, comprising forty men, lined up and the body, followed by the chief mourners, who were the immediate relatives. [...] The committal service was said by the Rev. Harrington C. Lees, and at the conclusion three volleys were fired over the grave, and the buglers sounded the "Last Post," a stirring conclusion to an impressive ceremony. The Freemasons present lined each side of the lych gate, and each brother wore sprigs of acacia, which later were dropped into the grave. In the church and at the churchyard, amongst over two thousand people present were representatives of the many varied interests in the life of Beckenham. [...] Seldom, indeed, is such sympathetic interest evoked, and it was a striking testimony to the esteem in which Lieut. Thornton was held."

Masonic :

Senior Deacon

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley