LEST WE FORGET
Second Lieutenant Harold James THORNTON
From Australia serving in the Royal Flying Corps
Service No: 9961 (Australian Army)
Born: Paddington NSW, September 1896
Enlisted in the Army: 13 March 1916
Unit: 36th Squadron, Royal Flying Corps
Died: Air Operations, North Sea, 23 September 1917, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Eldest son of Ernest Henry and Emmeline May Thornton, of “Silverdale,” Burns Bay Road, Lane Cove, Sydney, Australia
Remembered: Hollybrook Memorial, Southampton, Hampshire
Remembered: Commemorative Roll, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Longueville Public School Honour Roll (World War I), Lane Cove NSW
On 17 March 1917, Second Lieutenant Thornton resigned from the Australian Army and accepted a Commission in the British Army.
On 23 September 1917, Second Lieutenant Thornton (Pilot) and Second Lieutenant Cuthbert Alec Moore RFC (Observer) flying in FE2b aircraft A6461 went missing on an air patrol from Seaton Carew, County Durham.
References:
Australian War Memorial Commemorative Roll On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record B2455, THORNTON HAROLD JAMES
National Archives UK RAF Casualty Report AIR 1/10, 283833
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line