James Thorn (1 June 1882 – 21 November 1956) was a New Zealand politician and trade unionist.

Thorn was a bugler in the third New Zealand Contingent to the Boer War in 1900 and 1901; the experience turned him into a pacifist.

[1] He was engaged in trade union and party activity, including 1909 to 1913 in England and Scotland.

He unsuccessfully stood for the Independent Political Labour League in the Christchurch South electorate in the 1905 and 1908 election.

[1][3] He met his future wife while living in Palmerston North; Margaret Anderson (1897–1969), 15 years his junior, who had joined the Social Democratic Party with her father.