| Country: | England |
| Fullname: | Charles Thornhill |
| Birth Date: | 1814 |
| Birth Place: | Hemingford Grey, Huntingdonshire, England |
| Death Date: | 31 August 1881 (aged 66/67) |
| Death Place: | Castlebellingham, Ireland |
| Batting: | Unknown |
| Family: | George Thornhill (brother) John Thornhill (brother) |
| Club1: | Cambridge University |
| Year1: | 1837–1840 |
| Columns: | 1 |
| Column1: | First-class |
| Matches1: | 6 |
| Runs1: | 136 |
| Bat Avg1: | 13.60 |
| 100S/50S1: | –/– |
| Top Score1: | 32 |
| Hidedeliveries: | true |
| Catches/Stumpings1: | 2/– |
| Date: | 25 January |
| Year: | 2023 |
| Source: | https://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketers/charles-thornhill-22071 Cricinfo |
Charles Thornhill (1814 – 31 August 1881) was an English cricketer who played in six matches for Cambridge University that have since been judged to have been first-class.[1] [2] He was born at Hemingford Grey, Huntingdonshire and died at Milestown, Castlebellingham, County Louth, Ireland. His precise date of birth is not known.
Thornhill was the son of George Thornhill, a Huntingdonshire landowner who became Member of Parliament for Huntingdonshire from 1837 to his death in 1852.[3] He was educated at Eton College and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. As a cricketer, he played as a middle-order batsman, though it is not known if he was right- or left-handed.[1] He appeared for Cambridge University in one or two matches each season from 1837 to 1840 and he made, by the standards of the time, some good scores: against the Cambridge Town Club in 1838, for instance, he top-scored with 32 out of a total of 99 in the first innings.[4] But he was not picked for the Cambridge side in the University Match against Oxford University in any of his last three seasons, and therefore never won a Blue.
Thornhill graduated from Cambridge University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1841, and this converted to a Master of Arts in 1845.[3] His post-Cambridge career is not clear: in the directory of Cambridge alumni, he is cited as formerly a captain in the 14th King's Light Dragoons, but it also states that after graduation, when that regiment was sent on a 20-year tour of duty in India, Thornhill was ordained into the Church of England as a deacon, serving as curate at Wark on Tyne in 1842 and 1843.[3] At his death in 1881 in Ireland, he was noted in a newspaper as having been formerly the vicar of Burwell, Cambridgeshire.[5]
Several of his family were also cricketers: his brother George Thornhill played in first-class matches for Cambridge University, while another brother John appeared twice in first-class games for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC); other brothers, and George's three sons, played in minor matches.[1]