Frederick Whitfield Thornton L.R.C.P.I. M.R.C.S. (1865 – 13 July 1939) was an homeopathic physician who practiced at 1 York Place, Huddersfield. In November 1895, Thornton was elected a member of the British Homeopathic Society.

Thornton was a partner of Huddersfield-based homeopathic physician William Scott.

Frederick Whitfield Thornton was born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, in 1865.

Thornton was a student at Leeds Medical School and in July 1886, he received his Licence from the King and Queen’s College of Physicians in Ireland. The following year, 1887, he was admitted as a member of the English Royal College of Surgeons.

In 1891, Thornton married Fanny Beckwith (c. 1864 – 1946), also from Huddersfield. They had one daughter, Hilda (1893 – 1980).

Thornton lived and worked in his home town for almost his entire life, but moved house regularly. In 1887, he was at 38 Trinity Street, Huddersfield. In 1894, Thornton was at 11 Fitzwilliam Street West, Huddersfield. By 1904 he was listed at 35 New North Road, Huddersfield, and in 1910-11 he was residing at 1 York Place, Huddersfield.

In addition to his homeopathic medical practice, Thornton was active in municipal life and the wider professional world. He was a committee member of the Huddersfield Choral Society, and he was a Freemason, initiated into the Huddersfield Lodge of Harmony no. 275 on 27 February 1896. Thornton was also a writer, providing contributions to homeopathic publications. In addition, in 1882, he won a one guinea prize for a short story, titled “The First Bleeding in Russia,” that was reproduced in the Tit-Bits magazine.

Much of Thornton’s career remains unrecorded and he died in his home town of Huddersfield on 13 July 1939.