Douglas M. Thornton
Douglas M. Thornton was an English Christian missionary to Cairo, Egypt with the Church Missionary Society from 1898 to 1907.
Family
Douglas Thornton grew up in the county of Suffolk, England in a family that was well established in the Christian faith. Both his father, Rev. Claude Cecil Thornton, and his grandfather, Rev. Spencer Thornton, were both dedicated clergymen and his mother also came from a deeply religious family. The devotion to faith seen in his parents and grandparents influenced him greatly toward a love for the Bible and for missionary work.In 1899, one year after his arrival in Cairo, Thornton married Elaine Anderson and two years later in 1901 they had their only child – a son named Cecil.
Education
After spending four years preparing at Marlborough College he left for Cambridge University in 1892. Beyond his formal learning in mathematics he threw himself heavily into Christian life and ministry in his university years. He immediately involved himself in the Cambridge Missionary Union as well as the Christian Union at the school which steadily evolved and joined with the more international Student Volunteer Movement largely due to Thornton’s influence.Perhaps his greatest literary accomplishment was his creation of the magazine “Orient and Occident” which began in 1904. The magazine reached out to the educated members of society, but not only students. The regular magazine had illustrated articles addressing both religious and non-religious issues for both young and old readers in two languages.