The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (Q123780) Lance Corporal Albert Graham John Thornton, 1st Garrison Battalion, AIF, Second World War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Dennis Stockman, the story for this day was on (Q123780) Lance Corporal Albert Graham John Thornton, 1st Garrison Battalion, AIF, Second World War.


** Due to a technical fault there is no recording of this Last Post Ceremony **

Q123780 Lance Corporal Albert Graham John Thornton, 1st Garrison Battalion, AIF
Accidentally killed 11 November 1945
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 31 July 2016

Today we remember and pay tribute to Lance Corporal Albert Graham John Thornton.

Albert Thornton was born on 27 September 1902 in Killarney, Queensland, the son of Robert and Sarah Thornton. Growing up in the small town, south-east of Warwick on the Southern Downs, Thornton attended Killarney State School and afterwards worked on farms in the local area. In July 1925 he married Lilian “Lily” Shubert. The couple would have four children together.

Thornton was a keen horseman, and for most of his life he worked with stock. At the outbreak of war he was working as a station hand on Texas Station. He was 39 years old when he was called up for the Militia in January 1942.

Thornton was posted to the 1st Garrison Battalion at Gaythorne in Brisbane, and promoted to lance corporal in April. Soon afterwards he was transferred to the nearby 32nd Garrison Battalion at Enoggera Barracks. In February 1943 he was sent to the No. 1 Farrier School at nearby Redbank, and on completing the course he was graded as a group III farrier. Thornton subsequently returned to the 1st Garrison Battalion in June, and the battalion was based at Helidon, in the Lockyer Valley, for the rest of the war.

In the afternoon of 11 November 1945 Thornton and a woman from the Australian Women’s Army Service were exercising four horses at Helidon when they were caught in a storm. Ignoring the lessons he had taught to his own children, Thornton and his companion took shelter under an oak tree. The tree was struck by lightning, killing Thornton, the woman, and the horses.

Lance Corporal Thornton was 43 years old. He was buried in the war graves section of Toowomba Cemetery. His widow, Lily Thornton, published these words on the first anniversary of his death:
"I have lost my darling husband,
A love too deep for expression, a grief too hard to express.
To have him was to love him, to lose him was pain.
Sadly do I miss him when I am in need of a friend.
On him I could always depend, in trouble, grief or pain.
I miss your kind and loving ways, with you I spent my happiest days.
A loving smile, a heart of gold, the dearest husband the world could ever hold.
Many a lonely heartache, often a silent tear.
Longing for my husband I loved so dear."

Thornton’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, among some 40,000 Australians who died while serving in the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Lance Corporal Albert Graham John Thornton, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Dr Karl James
Historian, Military History Section