Ernie Thornton (13 March 1907 – 29 June 1969) was a British-born Australian trade union leader and member of the Communist Party of Australia.
Selina left Lewis when Ernie was two, and after taking factory and building jobs Thornton was brought to Sydney by the Dreadnought Trust in 1924 and sent to the Government Training Farm at Scheyville.
The Great Depression left him unemployed, and this led him to join the Communist Party of Australia (CPA).
On 9 August 1934 he married Alice Mary "Lila" Felstead, née Curtis, who was divorced with two sons, at Collins Street in Melbourne.
Thornton's position in the FIA was threatened in the 1946 union elections when the Balmain branch, backed by the Labor Industrial Groups, ran a rival ticket headed by Laurie Short.