Service Details
- Branch of Service
- Army
- Conflict
- World War I (1914-1918)
- Date of Enlistment
- 03/11/1914
- Place of Enlistment
- Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT
Personal Details
- Gender
- Male
- Date of Birth
- 29/05/1895
- Place of Birth
- Sydney NSW
- Address (at enlistment)
- Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT
- School(s) Attended
- Fort Street Boys High School (Sydney)
- Occupation
- Soldier
- Next of Kin
- George Thorne (father), Marrickville NSW
- Burial Place
Shell Green Cemetery, Gallipoli, Turkey plot 1, row F, grave 12
Unit and Rank Details
- Final Rank
- Lieutenant
- Final Unit
- 7 Light Horse Regiment AIF
Fate
Died 27 July 1915 on Gallipoli, Turkey aged 20 years
Commemoration
AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 6, Canberra ACT
Large stone tablet on outside of northern wall of St. John's Church, Reid ACT
Notes
Thorne entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon on 7 March 1912 and he was a member of the guard of honour formed by the cadets at the naming ceremony for Canberra on 12 March 1913. Robinson refers to "Bluey Thorne was fiery as to hair and temper. To hear rather than see Bluey charging down the Rugger field swearing at himself for encouragement was exhilerating indeed." One of the AWM images is of Thorne and his First XV teammates at Duntroon. Another was taken by his classmate Kenneth Mortimer. Thorne was graduated early on 2 November 1914 and enlisted as a Lieutenant in charge of the Machine Gun Section of the 7th Light Horse Regiment. The 7th Light Horse landed on Gallipoli in May 1915 as infantry and served mostly at the southern end of the front line. On 27 July 1915 he and his best friend, fellow ex-RMC cadet Tom Elliott, were hit by a shell in the trenches at Ryrie's Post. Elliott was wounded but Thorne was killed. He was buried at Shell Green Cemetery.
Description - height 5 feet 10 inches, weight 157 pounds, chest 34½-37 inches, Church of England.
Sources
Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', 1952
Frederick Robinson, 'The Dead of Duntroon', The Duntroon Society Newsletter (1/2008)
Sydney Morning Herald - 6 August 1915
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
AWM Roll of Honour Database
AWM Collection Records : A03049, A04171, P11688.003
Stories from the ACT Memorial, 'The Honour Guard at the Canberra Commencement Ceremony', ACT Heritage Library www.library.act.gov.au/find/history/stories_from_the_act_memorial