Source: 18th Battalion Nominal Roll, April 1915.
Family Search: Alfred William Thornton was born on 20 August 1890, in London, England, United Kingdom. He had at least 2 daughters with Emma Sarah Richam. He immigrated to Canada in 1913 and lived in Woodstock, Oxford, Ontario, Canada in 1921. He registered for military service in 1914. In 1914, at the age of 24, his occupation is listed as shaper hand. He died on 13 March 1955, in Owen Sound, Grey, Ontario, Canada, at the age of 64, and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Owen Sound, Grey, Ontario, Canada.
History of the 18th Battalion CEF, "The Fighting Eighteenth" 