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1889 Dec Born Knock, Co Galway
1910 Apr 12. Enlisted in Connaught Rangers
1914 Nov 23. Shrapnel wound at Chapelle, returned to UK. This wound led to his eventual discharge,
1915 Dec 22. Discharged.
1920 Feb 2. Patrick Thornton aged 29 held up on the road side and shot with a revolver near Spiddal, Galway, died of wounds. Served as a regular soldier 9936 Private Patrick Thornton, Connaught Rangers
He was killed by a group of men as he was leaving a pub at Loughanbeg near Spiddal, accompanied by his two brothers, on the night of 2 February 1920. He was a demobilised soldier and the police noted that he had been unpopular in the area as he ‘was of a bullying disposition’ and that 'he and his brothers were opposed to Sinn Fein’." The police alleged that the leader of the group was a local Irish teacher who shot Thornton in the abdomen after the three brothers were knocked down and beaten with sticks by a group of local men. Four men were later arrested and subsequently released without charge. It is not clear if this was an official attempt to kill by the IRA and it is more likely that it was intended to be a beating, carried out by local republicans which suddenly escalated into murder.
1920 Feb 16 His relatives claim £2000 compensation
In the end nobody was convicted of Thornton's murder
