Quick Search : British Home Children : The RootsChat.Com Reference Library

HOME FORUM HELP SEARCH

News : The Surname Interests Table (SIT), the Database for Special Interests Groups (DBSIG) and Ancestral Anniversaries
are now "mobile friendlier" more here ...

The RootsChat Reference Library

RootsChat.Com » RootsChat Reference Library » Database for Special Interest Groups (DBSIG) » British Home Children : Quick Search

Record #3889

Name :: : William Thomas THORNTON (1898 - 1938)
aka : William Thornton THOMAS
Father: : Thomas Henry Thornton
Mother: : Elizabeth Branson-Slater

BMD and other details

Date of Birth: : 10 Nov 1898
Marriage (1): : 10 Apr 1929 Spouse/Notes : Sadie Jane Nixon - Regina, Saskatchewan
Marriage (2): :
Date of Death: : 30 Mar 1938 Notes : Complications during operation

Abode (1) : Place of BirthEngland, Middlesex, London

Abode (2) : Place of Death / BurialCanada, Ontario, Toronto

Sailing Information

Date of Arrival: : 18 Mar 1910
Country: : Canada
Ship: : Tunisian
Placement Family: :

Homes / Agencys

Institution (GB): :
Agency: : Barnardos

NotesHis grandaughter, Fawn Laffin, related (on Pier 21 - Canada's Immigration Museum {website}pier21.ca/research/collections/the-story-collection/online-story-collection/british-home-children/):

William Thomas Thornton Was born November 10, 1898 in St Mary London in Queen Charlotte Hospital Maryleborn Road, London, England. He was the son of Thomas Henry Thornton and Elizabeth Branson-Slater. William was the third child from his parents. His sister and brothers name were: Lillian Ivy ( Lily) Thornton and Thomas Harold Thornton.

William, for reasons unknown, was put out for foster care at three weeks old. He was put in the care of Mrs. Jane Bave of 58 Rusell Street, Battersea while his family lived at 35 Battersea, St. Wandsworth, England.

His mother would visit him often, but the visits stop altogether and the family disappeared with no trace left to find them after 1905.

William was first enrolled in the Battersea Park Road Infants Department on August 24, 1903, by his father. He then enrolled on August 27, 1908 at the Barnardo School for boys as Mrs. Bave could not mind him anymore as he was turning into a street lad.

Finally Barnardo's admitted William on November 2, 1909, but he was sent to her Majesties Hospital from November 3, 1909 until November 13, 1909. After getting out of Her Majesties Hospital William was then sent to a home in Felixtown Suffold, England, and stayed there until December 15, 1909 when he was then Sent to Clapham's Home for boys.

On March 10, 1910 form Liverpool, England William was sent on the S.S. Tunisian to Canada with the Barnardo' s party. They arrived in Canada on March 19, 1910 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

William was then sent on a train heading for Winnipeg, Manitoba. He was accompanied by a Mr Rogers. They stopped at the Winnipeg Branch Home for boys, arriving there on March 21, 1910.

In 1913 William was sent to QuAppelle Edgelery in Saskatchewan, Canada to work on the farm of Mr. and Mrs. Garourt. He stayed there for only a year then was sent to a Mr. and Mrs. Stickle to work for them from 1914-1916. After that he worked for his last and finally family, that of a Mr Graigs in 1917.

Finally William was a young man and able to go on his own. You see Barnardo' s was not a nice place back in the 1800s and early 1900s. It was like a slave camp for children and not all children where treated well, as there was abuse going on.

William had great achievements in Saskatchewan, Canada. In 1925 he played on the radio for one hour and was in a newspaper article entitled, "CONCERTS ARE EAST FOR FANS WHO LISTEN IN". Rosson's Trio, Edgeley Quartet and Norwegian Will on CKCK Program. There is a section where he is mentioned and his band. It reads, "Sam Swayze Sings." Then under it, is as follows , "With old time numbers, the Edgeley Quartet went on the air for an hour from 8 to 9 pm. The Quartet consisted of Miss L Tate, Piano; N. Goldwin, Violin; Paul Okerstrom mandolin; William Thornton, accordion. The following are items they gave to fans: Jingle Bells, Yankee Doodle, Hinky Dinkey Parley Voo, When the Clouds are Vanished and Skies are Blue, Turkey in the Straw, Nellie Gray; accordion solo, Over the Waves, Red Wing, Golden Slipper, Peek a Boo, Coming threw the Rye, My Wild Irish Rose, St. Patrick's Day, Mellow Moon, Sally, Show Me the Way."

From 1925 - 1926 he played the accordion and drums for dances and was asked to bring others to play with him as well.

William then met a girl by the name of Sadie Jane Nixon and they were married on April 10, 1929 in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. They had three children all together, a son that was still born and two daughters, Mabel Pearl born in 1931 and Margaret June Thornton Born in 1935, both girls were born in Regina, Saskatchewan.

The family later moved to Ontario, Canada , and I am sad to say that was William' s final resting place as he died on March 30, 1938 in Toronto, Ontario Canada, do to a complication during an operation.

William didn't like to talk much about his past as he was always being shipped around as a young child, and probably lived an unhappy life as a young child. He was the kind of man that lived for the day, and made his life a happy one. He was a great men and will be sadly missed by those who remember him or knew him.

You can find out more about William Thornton on the Sask Web Page URL:
{website}rootsweb.com/~cansk/surnames/Thornton.html

Edited (from two near identical records dated 2008):15.07.15 alanmack

ContributorsCreated : 2008-07-14 09:50:41 / From original database

Last Updated : 2015-07-15 13:00:25 / alanmack

Family History ResearchersRootsChatters with family connections to William Thomas THORNTON:

Readers Comments

Surnames starting with: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 30 Entries

Page: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 10313 Entries

ID	Name	DOB	Place of birth	Arrivals & Ships	Dest.	Agency	Family links
3004	AARON, Alfred Robert	1899	ENG, LAN, West Derby, Liverpool	Mar 1911 : Sicilian	CAN	Barnardos
3003	AARON, John Richard	1895	ENG, LAN, West Derby, Liverpool	Mar 1911 : Sicilian	CAN	Barnardos
3007	ABBEY, Bertha	1890	ENG, DUR, Stockton on Tees	Jul 1904 : Southwark	CAN	Barnardos
3006	ABBEY, John	1887	ENG, DUR, Stockton on Tees	Oct 1904 : Southwark	CAN	Barnardos
3161	ABBEY, Thomas	1892	ENG, DUR, Stockton on Tees	Oct 1904 : Southwark	CAN	Barnardos
3020	ABBOT, Alice	1877	ENG, MDX, Islington	Oct 1893 : Labrador	CAN	Barnardos
3047	ABBOT, William	1878	ENG,	Apr 1895 : Parisian	CAN	Barnardos
3019	ABBOTT, Alfred	1869	ENG,	Aug 1887 : Parisian	CAN	Barnardos
23669	ABBOTT, Alice	1877	ENG,	Oct 1893 : Labrador	CAN	Barnardos
3022	ABBOTT, Bertie	1894	ENG, SFK, Ipswich	May 1909 : Corsican	CAN	Barnardos	sharonmx5 , patty_in_ms
3025	ABBOTT, David Henry	1891	ENG, ESS, Grays	Mar 1901 : Tunisian	CAN	Barnardos
3055	ABBOTT, Douglas Groves	1910	ENG, HAM, Hartley Wintney	Apr 1924 : Montclare	CAN	Barnardos
3858	ABBOTT, Emily Jane	1886	ENG, YKS, Guisborough	Jul 1903 : Dominion	CAN	Barnardos
8354	ABBOTT, Frederick Albert Prosper	1885	ENG, LND, Homerton	Apr 1895 : Parisian	CAN	Barnardos
3036	ABBOTT, George	1894	ENG, MDX, London	Jul 1904 : Southwark	CAN	Barnardos
3038	ABBOTT, Herman Henry	1882	ENG, MDX, Hoxton, London	Apr 1895 : Parisian	CAN	Barnardos
10624	ABBOTT, John	1913	ENG,	Apr 1929 : Duchess of York	CAN	Barnardos
3045	ABBOTT, Leslie	1883	ENG,	Mar 1893 : Labrador	CAN	Barnardos
3060	ABBOTT, Lilian	1903	ENG,	Jun 1912 : Tunisian	CAN	Barnardos
3026	ABBOTT, Mary	1888	ENG, ESS, Maldon	Oct 1902 : Colonian	CAN	Barnardos
3049	ABBOTT, Penelope	1901	ENG, KEN, Sidcup	Jun 1912 : Tunisian	CAN	Barnardos
5046	ABBS, Bertie Cecil John	1914	ENG, LND, St. Pancras	Mar 1930 : Duchess of Richmond	CAN	Barnardos
3061	ABDALE, John George	1873	ENG, NBL, Newcastle Upon Tyne	Mar 1891 : Norwegian	CAN	Barnardos
3063	ABEL, Albert Edward G.	1901	ENG, ESS, West Ham	Aug 1910 : Tunisian	CAN	Barnardos
3066	ABEL, Charles	1891	ENG,	Mar 1906 : Dominion	CAN	Barnardos
3065	ABEL, Florence	1902	ENG, ESS, West Ham	Aug 1910 : Tunisian	CAN	Barnardos
3067	ABEL, Frederick	1889	ENG,	Jul 1900 : Tunisian	CAN	Barnardos
3068	ABEL, George	1887	ENG,	Aug 1905 : Dominion	CAN	Barnardos
3069	ABEL, George	1897	ENG,	Mar 1907 : Dominion	CAN	Barnardos
3071	ABEL, John	1886	ENG,	Jun 1897 : Labrador	CAN	Barnardos
ID	Name	DOB	Place of birth	Arrivals & Ships	Dest.	Agency	Family links

Surnames starting with: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 30 Entries

The Database for Special Interest Groups (DBSIG) is a RootsChat Reference Library project.

[Copyright] [Shrink Link] [Terms of Use] [About RootsChat]