Henry Gerard Thornton, 22 January 1892 - 6 February 1977

Henry Gerard T hornton was born in London in 1892, the elder son of Frank Hugh Thornton, J. P., of Kingsthorpe Hall, Northampton. His father, who was a breeder of shorthorn cattle, exporting prize bulls to Argentina, came from a long line of Northamptonshire landowners which had received an influx of exotic blood in the eighteenth century when an heiress daughter had married a Dutch Huguenot merchant from Smyrna. In more senses than one the father was an enlightened country gentleman, for not only was he instrumental in establishing the first electric light company in the county, but he was also much concerned with rural health and welfare and infant mortality, and introduced hygienic methods for milk production. This interest was no doubt much deepened by the death of his wife Evelyn (née Burchell) in childbirth when Henry was 9 years old. RESP-7646