Virtual
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Australia

Born at Maylands, South Australia on 9 February 1893.

Son of the late Alfred Jaques CORNISH and Mother Selma Mathilda GUENTHER, who was a jeweler by profession.

He was educated at the East Adelaide Public School and the South Australian School of Mines and Industries.

At the outbreak of the Great War he was employed as a warehouseman by G & R Wills & Co. Ltd of Gawler Place, Adelaide.

He commenced his military career in the old Adelaide Rifles, which he joined as a Private in 1911, and subsequently held the non-commissioned ranks of Corporal and Sergeant.

On 1 July 1912 with the introduction of compulsory military training he received his first commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the 79th (Torrens) Infantry and was promoted to rank of Lieutenant in same regiment on 16 July 1914 holding this commission at the time of joining the Australian Imperial Force (AIF).  He also officiated as Adjutant of the 79th Infantry from 16 August 1914 to 15 December 1914 and next day was appointed Lieutenant in the AIF, and posted to the 3rd reinforcements of the 10th Battalion, with which he embarked as OC per HMAT A54 Runic on 19 February 1915. 

He proceeded to Egypt and the Dardanelles, where he joined the 10th Battalion in the line at Anzac on 7 May 1915.   He was posted to ‘C’ Company as a Platoon Commander and on 25 May 1915 was promoted to the rank of Temporary Captain.

On 19 August 1915 he evacuated ill, and was taken on board the hospital ship Gascon, proceeding to Malta where he was admitted to the Blue Sisters’ Hospital, and thus reverted to his substantive rank of Lieutenant on 10 September 1915.   He subsequently re-embarked on the Oxfordshire for England, where he was admitted to the 3rd London General Hospital at Wandsworth.  He rejoined the 10th Battalion in France at Delville Wood in September 1916, when he was posted to ‘D’ Company as 2nd in Command.  On 30 October 1916 he was promoted to the rank of Captain and appointed OC of ‘D’ Company.

On 30 May 1917 at Ribemont, his company won the Brigade Cup for the Battalion and in June 1917 was placed 2nd in the Division in the Company competition. He retained command of ‘D’ Company until 15 July 1917 when he was appointed Adjutant of the Battalion by Lieutenant-Colonel M Wilder-Neligan DSO DCM.  He retained the adjutancy of the 10th until 13 July 1918 when he was transferred to 3rd Brigade Headquarters as a Staff Trainee.  

He first was appointed Assistant Staff Captain, then Assistant Brigade Major, and subsequently his former appointment of Staff Captain was confirmed. 

He was later transferred to 1st Australian Division Headquarters as DAAG (Deputy Assistant Adjutant General), which appointment he held until November 1918, when he was transferred to England, where on 13 March 1919 he was appointed Staff Officer No.1 AIF Demobilisation Group at Longbridge Deveill, Wiltshire.

In November 1919, he embarked on the Morea as Ship’s Adjutant, and arrived back in Adelaide in December 1919, his services with the AIF terminating on 10 February 1920.

For his splendid work at Bullecourt in May 1917 he was awarded the Military Cross, which was promulgated in the London Gazette on 14 August 1917.

He was also Mentioned In Despatches (MID) on two occasions, vide London Gazette 25 May 1918 and 11 July 1919. 

In 1919 he was awarded the Croix de Guerre ave palme, he and Field-Marshal Sir William Birdwood, Major-General Sir T William Glasgow KCB, CMG, DSO, VD and Major-General E G Sinclair-MacLagan CB, CMG, DWO being the only four AIF recipients of this particular form of that French decoration.

During his absence from Australia he was appointed a Lieutenant in the 2/32 Infantry on 1 October 1918.

On 30 October 1921 he was listed as a Captain in the Reserve of Officers, 4th Military District, and on 11 November 1923 transferred with same rank to the 1st Battalion, 2nd Military District. 

On 1 March 1924 he was appointed Staff Officer ‘G’ Branch, 2nd Division Headquarters and retained this position until 2 October 1924.  He officiated as Adjutant and Temporary Quartermaster of the 1st Battalion from 4 October 1924 until 31 October 1924.  He subsequently officiated as Staff Officer ‘G’ Branch, 2nd Division Headquarters from 1 March 1925 until 19 April 1925.  He was placed on the Unattached List, 3rd Military District on 21 April 1925 and transferred to the Retired List on 1 July 1927.

Early in 1920 he proceeded to Fiji, where he was appointed Resident Commissioner of Rotumah Island, holding this position for three years.  He then returned to Australia and entered into business with Major-General H Gordon Bennett CB, CMG, DSO, trading under the name of H G Bennett & Co.

Two years later he entered the Economic Manufacturing Co at Bendigo, Victoria, and in 1933 returned to Sydney and commenced with the firm of Snowball Bros., mantle and costume manufacturers of Hall House, 367 George Street.  Representing this firm he last visited Adelaide in July 1935.

In 1915 he married Vera, daughter of Albert Kirston, of Kew, Victoria, there being two sons of the union.

He was an enthusiastic member of the 3rd and 13th Brigades, AIF Association, Sydney, and in 1935 was residing at No.13 Awaba Street, Balmoral Beach, Sydney NSW.

Biography extract from “The Fighting 10th”, Adelaide, Webb & Son, 1936 by C.B.L. Lock; supplied courtesy of the 10th Bn AIF Association Committee, April 2015.