An unusual Great War K.B.E. group of six attributed to Major-General Sir Henry Thornton, Royal Engineers, General Manager of the Great Eastern Railway and Inspector-General of Transportation, an American who, among other onerous responsibilities, undertook the smooth running of the U.K’s wartime railway system: a greatly respected doyen of 20th century rail transport, he later became President of the Canadian National Railways

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, K.B.E. (Civil) Knight Commander’s 1st type set of insignia, comprising neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel, and breast star, silver, with gilt and enamel centre; British War Medal 1914-20 (Maj. Gen. H. W. Thornton); Belgium, Order of Leopold I, Officer’s breast badge, with swords, silver-gilt and enamel; France, Legion D’Honneur, Chevalier’s breast badge, silver, gilt and enamel - but actually entitled to the grade of Commander; United States of America, Distinguished Service Medal (Army), bronze-gilt and enamel, the edge officially numbered, ‘2395’, together with related Canada National Railways metalled ticket holder, enamel work chipped in places on the Belgian and French pieces, otherwise generally good very fine (7) £700-900

K.B.E. London Gazette 1 January 1919.

Officer of the Belgian Order of Leopold I London Gazette 20 May 1919.

Commander of French Legion of Honour London Gazette 8 March 1920.

American D.S.M. London Gazette 12 July 1919. The original recommendation (War Department G.O. No. 87 of 1919) states:

‘As Paris representative of the Director-General of Movements and Railways in London, he rendered great assistance to the American Expeditionary Forces in procurement of hospital trains and supplies. He furnished us with information which proved most important in the development of the American Transportation Corps.’

Henry Worth Thornton was born in Logansport, Indiana in November 1871 and was educated at St. Paul’s School, Concord and Pennsylvania University where, in addition to obtaining the highest academic qualifications, he excelled as a brilliant athlete.

Joining the Engineering Department of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1894, he went on to enjoy varied posts and promotion, culminating, in 1911, with his appointment as General Superintendent of the newly acquired Long Island Railroad, the most important division in the East - and he was still serving in that capacity when successfully interviewed by the U.K’s Great Eastern Railway Board in 1913, the opening chapter of a highly successful career in senior management. Not so successful was the reception afforded him in the U.K., where less worthy railway managers and less enlightened politicians objected to the appointment of an “alien”, but Thornton - the master of diplomacy and always popular with his work force - soon turned opinion in his favour, an achievement as timely as it was deserved, for a major challenge faced the Great Eastern and its competitors: the advent of hostilities in August 1914

The Great War

With the commencement of the Great War, Great Eastern Railways quickly became one of the most important military lines of communication in the U.K., and, under the auspices of the British Government, Thornton was appointed to an Executive Committee of Railway General Managers, the whole charged with operating the country’s railway system under massive strain and demand from the war effort. And one of the most important locations to feel the brunt of this pressure was the port of Southampton, very much Thornton’s domain, and where thousands of troops were massed on a daily basis, in readiness for embarkation for France - so, too, where the wounded were disembarked on an equally regular - and depressing - basis.

By way of illustrating the burden of responsibility that befell Thornton in these circumstances, it is worth examining the statistics in relation to the movements of the B.E.F. in August 1914: during the first few days of the War, about 80 trains arrived daily at Southampton from all parts of the U.K., scheduled to run at 12 minute intervals. Here the troops would be discharged into waiting transports in the dock, together with accompanying horses, wagons, equipment and other paraphernalia of war - the moment a transport was loaded it was moved to deeper water, in order to allow the next one alongside the quay. So much for the cycle of events - now for the numbers: within a period of just three days, Southampton received 150,000 troops and, much to Thornton’s credit, not one of the 350 locomotives in use arrived late at its destination.

Described by the media as ‘the greatest railway feat since the discovery of steam’, and by Thornton as ‘one of the greatest feats of railroad management that ever came under his observation’, the great rush on Southampton set the benchmark for future wartime railway operations - and brought Thornton closer to those in senior military command. Thus his subsequent appointment as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Engineer and Railway Staff Corps in July 1916, in time to face the terrible tide of wounded evacuated from the Somme, and the despatch of much needed reinforcements to the same battlefront.

Advanced to Assistant Director-General of Movements and Railways in the rank of Colonel in May 1917, and thence to Deputy Director-General of Movements and Railways in the rank of Brigadier-General in 1918, Thornton was latterly the Inspector-General of Transportation in the rank of Major-General, all offices of momentous responsibility that won him a succession of accolades from the Allies, namely the American D.S.M. and appointments as Officer of the Belgian Order of Leopold I and Commander of the French Legion of Honour (not, as included above, Chevalier), all distinctions reflecting his service in Paris from May 1917 to October 1919, while representing the Army Council in transport negotiations with our Allies. As for his honorary K.B.E., Thornton became a British citizen in 1919 and thereafter was able to enjoy the use of his knighthood; the whereabouts of his Victory Medal 1914-19 - to which he was entitled - remains unknown.

President of the Canadian National Railways

In many respects, given his previous experience in welding cohesion throughout Britain’s railway communications, Thornton’s next career decision was a natural choice - namely, in 1922, his acceptance of the Presidency of the newly formed Canadian National Railways (C.N.R.) - by the special invitation of the Canadian premier W. L. MacKenzie King. And it was a natural choice because his main task in 1923 was to bring together the Grand Trunk Railway and all the other railway systems - namely the Canadian Northern Railway, the Grand Trunk Pacific, the Canadian Trans-continental, the Inter-colonial and other Government lines in the lower provinces, and these in addition to the inter-related Canadian National Steamship service, the latter a ‘political football and a burden to the tax payers of the Dominion.’ Yet within a year or so of taking office, Thornton had created a new sense esprit de corps among all classes of employees, a profitable freight business and a fairly lucrative passenger service - assets that allowed him to keep political interference to a minimum. It was a remarkable achievement, entailing as it did the co-ordination of around 21,000 miles of track.

But with the advent of the economic depression in 1929-30, and the ongoing expense of competing with Canadian Pacific Railways, Sir Henry’s popularity waned, so much so that he was subjected to vindictive attacks from the political elite, namely Conservative M.Ps who became known as the “Wrecking Brigade”. He was forced to resign, and in what one Liberal M.P. described as ‘the rawest deal any man ever received for the Government of Canada’, he was stripped of his pension.

But to his old employees, Sir Henry remained as popular as ever, always having taken the trouble to engage the most junior members of staff on his travels, the sight of him chatting with driver or fireman before departure common place - small wonder then, according to the history of the C.N.R., ‘that in every major railway station throughout Canada that is used by C.N.R. trains there will be found today a bronze plaque’ commemorating his term of office.

Sir Henry died a broken man in New York in March 1933, on which date he was due to have attended a dinner with his old C.N.R. employees; sold with full research.