Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Wade Thornton, KCH (1 June 1764 – 6 April 1854) was a British military officer who served during the Napoleonic Wars.

His father was a wealthy and politically powerful planter who was descended from William Thornton, who arrived from England before 1649.

His father died when he was of an early age and his mother moved the family to England before the start of the Revolutionary War.

[2] He rose to the rank of captain in 1793, lieutenant-colonel in 1811, colonel in 1825, major-general in 1837 and finally lieutenant-general in 1846.

[4] Thornton died on 6 April 1854 in his private apartment at St James's Palace.