Charles Thornton was intially rejected for military service because of a heart condition. But he made another attempt to join up and managed to enlist in the Lincolnshire Regiment just three weeks after the start of the First World War. He was younger of two sons of Lewis and Mary Thornton of North Luffenham. Lewis was a butcher in the village, but both his sons trained to be bakers. Charles worked in Nottingham and then in Wragby, Lincolnshire, while his brother George worked in Loughborough. Charles attested for the army at Lincoln and joined the 6th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment. He was sent to Malta and then to Gallipoli when the British made new landings at Suvla Bay in an attempt to break the deadlock in the fighting which had been going on since April. He was shot in the stomach and died from his wounds on 11 August 1915. He has no known grave and is remembered on Panel 47 of the Helles Memorial as well as at home in North Luffenham church. His brother George, who had joined up the day after him, was discharged from the army in October 1914 as medically unfit.