[4] Her father was an early recruit to the CPGB, an active member of the South Wales Mines Federation,[5] and a coal hewer at the Six Bells Colliery.

[11] British International Brigadier Michael Livesey died of his injuries while in Silverthorne's arms, a memory which haunted her for the rest of her life.

[3] Deeply influenced by her experiences in Spain, she made it her "life work" to improve the pay, conditions and professional standing of British nurses.

[17] As the Secretary of the SMA, she led a delegation that met Clement Attlee to discuss the establishment of the National Health Service.

[11] After returning from Spain with her new husband Kenneth Sinclair-Loutit (whom she married in 1937), they lived together at 12 Great Ormond Street and had one daughter, Christina Ruth (1940–2009).

Silverthorne divorced Sinclair-Loutit and in 1946 married the architect and fellow communist party member Cameron Nares Craig (1917–2012) in 1946.

[16] Thora Silverthorne died in London in January 1999, having suffered from Alzheimer's disease and was commemorated with a funeral in Marylebone cemetery.

During the funeral, the Welsh hymn Land of My Fathers, as performed in English by Paul Robeson, was played during the service.