Lieut. Ernest James vernon Thornton, RN

Lieutenant Thornton was second in command of the Submarine A3, and perished with thirteen others when it collided with HMS Hazard and sank off the Isle of Wight on 2 February 1912. The son of a local solicitor, he was only twenty-two years of age at the me of his death. His first cousin, Raymond Chandler (1888-1956) was a well known author of detective fiction and creator of the sleuth Philip Marlowe.