Booklet titled 'Thomas Thornton: selections from his letters'

Printed booklet comprising selections from Thomas Thornton's letters written between 12 February 1883 and 10 January 1904, mostly written to his brother.

Thomas Henry Thornton was born in 1832, educated at Merchant Taylors' School and read Classics and Modern history at St John's College, Oxford.

In 1855, he entered the Indian Civil Service in the last few years of the East India Company. He was posted to the Punjab and played a small but distinguished role in the Indian Rebellion of 1857, noted in Roberts Forty-one Years in India. Thornton had been returning from a visit to Philour fort, north of Ludhiana, as part of his work for George Ricketts, the Deputy Commissioner, when he came upon Indian soldiers of that fort and Jalandhar (Jullunder) marching in revolt on Ludhiana. Rather than return to the fort for protection, he rode on, cut the cables of a bridge of boats over the Sutlej River, and continued to Ludhiana to raise the alarm.

In 1864 he was appointed Secretary to the Punjab Government, a post he held for 12 years. Thornton assumed responsibility for the organisation of the 1877 Delhi Durbar, the success of which, together with his service to date, led to the conferring on him of the award of Companion of the Order of the Star of India. He later became a judge in the Punjab Chief Court and a member of the Legislative Council, retiring in 1881 after the completion of 25-years of colonial service.

In retirement he wrote two well-regarded biographies of key British India figures, Robert Groves Sandeman and Richard John Meade. He was a member and sometime chairman of the Wandsworth magistrates bench, and vice-president of The Asiatic Society at the time of his death.

Open, access to all registered researchers.

Presented April 2019

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