“ Gentle in character, scientific in mind, a persuasive speaker of formed opinions, and absolutely honest, Thorburn exercise much quiet influence wherever he went. Broken in health and in spirits by the events of the war, he retired from active work in Manchester, and had hardly settled to a life of leisure in London when the death of his wife further saddened him, and, though he struggled bravely to continue his work, his friends saw with regret his gradual loss of strength and energy. ”

“ In Manchester, Thorburn filled most of the positions of honour in scientific medicine, and he was appointed D.L. for the County of Lancaster; in 1913 he was one of the honorary secretaries of the Section of Surgery at the thirteenth International Congress of Medicine when it met in London. The outbreak of the war found him already holding the rank of lieutenant in the R.A.M.C., Territorial Force, and he was at once placed in command of the 2nd Western General Hospital. ”

“ The war having taken from him his three sons, he was appointed consulting surgeon with the temporary rank of Colonel A.M.S., at Malta, Gallipoli, and Salonika, and in 1917 he filled a similar position in France. ”