Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Major P. R. Thornton, Tank Corps, formerly Wiltshire Regiment, wounded at Neuve Chapelle, March 1915

1914-15 Star (Lieut. P. R. Thornton. Wilts. R.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. P. R. Thornton.) good very fine (3) £80-120

Philip Reginald Thornton was born in 1882, in Liversedge, Dewsbury, Yorkshire, the son of Randall (woollen machine maker) and Clara Thornton, of Eddercliffe House, New Street, Rawfolds, Liversedge. He was admitted as a solicitor in 1905 and was a member of Hughes, Bartlett and Thornton, 115, High Holborn, London. He was commissioned in the 8th Battalion Wiltshire Regiment on 13 November 1914, Lieutenant in January 1915, and served first during the Great War on the Western Front with the 2nd Battalion Wiltshire Regiment from 5 March 1915, arriving in the trenches on 9 March 1915, the day prior to the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, where he was wounded. He transferred to the Machine Gun Corps (Infantry) as Adjutant in December 1915 and was promoted Captain in September 1916 in Machine Gun Corps (Heavy). In November 1916, he transferred to the Tank Corps and was appointed acting Major in January 1917. He relinquished his commission on 27 February 1919 and was granted the rank of Major.

The 2nd Battalion Wiltshire Regiment War Diary notes a hotly contested, but successful action at Neuve Chapelle with a great number of German Prisoners of War taken. Casualties were 5 Officers and 24 men killed; 12 Officers and 45 men wounded; and 58 men missing.