SHOE SMITH 98949 CHARLES ALFRED THORNTON, 123rd BRIGADE ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY. KILLED IN ACTION 3rd SEPTEMEBER 1918, AGED 39 YEARS.


SHOE SMITH 98949 CHARLES ALFRED THORNTON, 123rd BRIGADE ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY.  KILLED IN ACTION 3rd SEPTEMBER 1918, AGED 39 YEARS.


Charles Was born in the hamlet of Langtoft in the East Riding of Yorkshire in 1879, the son of Michael and Sarah Thornton. The Thornton’s were a large family who moved to Ilkley just before the beginning of the 20th Century where Michael took up employment as a brick layer. Charles, however, remained in East Yorkshire working as a blacksmith and farrier on local farms. Just before the beginning of the war and now married with two children he opened a blacksmiths shop in the village of Barkston Ash near Tadcaster.


In 1914 the British Army was largely reliant on the horse to pull wagons and to move the guns. The rapid expansion of the army following the declaration of war necessitated the recruitment of men who had the skills required to maintain and care for these essential animals. As a farrier Charles had skill that were clearly at a premium and despite being 35 years of age was readily accepted as a recruit. Posted as a shoe smith to the 123rd Brigade of the Royal Horse Artillery, his job was to maintain the health of the many horses needed to haul the guns and ammunition limbers.

Records suggest that Charles was accepted into the British Army in 1914 and went with his Brigade to France in July 1915 and would have seen a considerable amount of action as his unit was posted across the British Front. After more than three years in the trenches on the 3rd September 1918 Charles and his unit took up positions near to the village of Haplincourt to the east of Bapaume in the Somme area in support of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in an attack against the German lines. Artillery units were frequently the subject of counter battery fire and on that day three men from the Brigade were killed including Charles.

Today Shoe Smith Charles Thornton lies in the British Military Cemetery at Beaulencourt and is remembered with pride in Barkston Ash, the home of his widow and children, and here in Ilkley where his parents lived







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