Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

Charles Lyall Cornelius was the elder surviving son of Charles William and Florence (Flora, née Purvis) Cornelius. Charles William Cornelius and Florence Purvis had married at Timaru on 15 February 1888. Maud Mary Cornelius who was born in 1887 was believed to be the daughter of Charles and Florence. Florence Mabel Cornelius was born in 1888 and Ethel May Cornelius in 1890, both at Timaru. A son, Joseph Robert Cornelius was born in 1902 at Waimate. There appears to be no birth registration for Charles Lyall Cornelius born in 1893, nor for Robert Joseph Cornelius who was born in about 1898 and accidentally killed in Waimate on 31 May 1902, aged 3 years 11 months, buried at Waimate. Charles Lyall Cornelius was born at Timaru on 30 March 1893 and was killed in action at Gallipoli between 28 and 30 April 1915, just six months after embarking and little more than four months after disembarking at Alexandria, and at the young age of 22. He was baptized Catholic on 5 May 1895 at Waimate (as Carolus Lylse Longford Cornelius). His three older sisters and his younger brother were all baptized at Waimate on 22 July 1898. Two more children were born – Joseph Robert Cornelius in 1902 and Marjory Frances Cornelius in 1907. Young Charles was educated at Waimate and Timaru, and at Winchester. He spent most of his boyhood in Waimate and was a champion skater and was also good at swimming.

Charles Lyall was a member of the Territorial force, belonging to the 10th Regiment, and had already registered for compulsory military training at Enfield, where he had been working for some time as a horse groom for Mr Reid of Burnside, Enfield. He enlisted for the Expeditionary Force at Oamaru on 13 August 1914 - the first in North Otago to enlist, and he was among the Oamaru contingent which went north on 14 August. He must have retraced his steps as by mid-September he was in camp at Tahuna, Dunedin, with the 10th (North Otago) Regiment. Charles was medically examined on 14 August 1914. He was 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighed 143 pounds, with a chest measurement of 33-37 inches, a light brown complexion, grey eyes and brown hair. His sight, hearing, colour vision, heart and lungs were all normal, his limbs and chest well formed, and his teeth good. He was free from diseases, vaccinated, and in good bodily and mental health. Single and Catholic, he nominated his mother as next-of-kin – Mrs Charles Cornelius, Stafford Street, Timaru. There she worked in the registry office.

Private C. L. Cornelius embarked with the Otago Infantry Battalion of the Main Body, departing from Port Chalmers per Transport No. 9 on 16 October 1914 and disembarking at Alexandria, Egypt on 3 December. The next newspaper mentions of Charles are to announce his death. Charles had died on 28 April 1915 (approximately, between 26 and 30 April) at the Dardanelles. Although his parents were believed to be residing in Timaru by this date, the sympathy of the Enfield community went out to the relatives of the brave men in their time of trial. The observations were made that that it was “news like this (killed in action) that brings home to a community the full reality of what war means”, and that the families have “the comfort of knowing that their boys acted as brave men should act, by not shirking their national responsibility and being ready, if necessary, to yield unto their empire the supreme sacrifice.” The lengthy newspaper lists received in June 1915 reported very heavy losses.

Charles was a bright lad and had written home to his mother some interesting letters. In his last letter, written just before leaving for the Dardanelles, he added an eloquent and touching postscript: “I always keep the little prayer book you gave me in the breast pocket of my tunic.” By the time of Charles death at Gallipoli, his mother Mrs C. Cornelius was residing at 494, Cashel Street (Christchurch). Lieutenant Nisbet, an officer of the Otago Battalion under whom Charles served, wrote to his own mother from the Dardanelles, describing the fighting and expressing his sorrow at losing so many men. He wrote: “Many of the very best are dead, including Private Cornelius, who was shot beside me, and many another good man. But they acted like veterans, and although they got no support for hours, stuck to their post splendidly and didn't give an inch.” Mrs Nisbet wrote to Mrs Cornelius with the details. “I have been thinking so much of you since the death of your brave boy,” she wrote, “that I feel I must write and offer you my most sincere sympathy. . . . The fact that our sons have done their duty so nobly is a great source of pride, but it does not make the loss any the less; and it was a cruel task to set them.” She remarks that she had met Charles and liked him very much, and that her son trusted him implicitly and would surely mourn for him very deeply.” Sadly, Thomas Holmes Nisbet was himself killed at Gallipoli on 7 August 1915.

Charles’ grandfather, the late Mr R. L. Cornelius, of Timaru, fought through the Crimean war, and gave valuable service as a scout and on outpost duty. Charles himself and his siblings may have had a somewhat topsy-turvy childhood. Their father was a well-known and very successful huntsman and groom in Otago and South Canterbury. He was at Waimate for some ten years between the mid-1890s and mid-1910s. Their four-year old brother Robert was killed in a tragic accident at Waimate in 1902. At the Waimate Magistrate’s Court a few months later, Florence Cornelius applied for a separation order from Charles on account of persistent cruelty. Florence detailed the cruelties that her husband had shown towards her children and herself, stating that he had threatened to kill them all. Her daughter Florence corroborated her evidence and Maud gave similar evidence. In his defence, Charles Cornelius stated that he had irregular hours of work and could not be at home at regular hours. His wife being away from home washing was the cause of all the trouble. His Worship, of the opinion that cruelty had been shown persistently, ordered a separation order, the defendant to contribute 15 shillings per week towards the support of his wife and children. In August 1907, Florence claimed for maintenance from Charles. The parties came to an agreement that £15 would be paid within a month and 5 shillings per week off the arrears, as well as the 15 shillings per week as stipulated in the original order. His Worship in making the order as applied for, spoke very strongly on the conduct of the defendant in ignoring the order of the Court and allowing the arrears to accumulate to such an amount, and warned the defendant «f the penalty for disobedience of an older. The defendant had not shown that he was prevented in any way from complying with the order. The case was a most contemptuous one, as defendant had allowed the arrears to run on for nearly two years, until there was now £115 owing. At the beginning of February 1908, the old wooden two-storied building where Mrs Cornelius ran a boarding house at Waimate, was burnt down. Nothing was saved, although her furniture was insured. She moved to Timaru and ran the Timaru Labour Exchange and was a fruiterer. Her son Robert (born 1902) was admitted to Timaru Main School in June 1908 after one month at Waimate. In July 1911 he left for Wellington where he was admitted to Te Aro School, his sister Florence Allen his guardian; he returned to Timaru in October 1912. The youngest of the family, Marjorie Frances Cornelius (born 1907) was admitted to Sacred Heart School, Timaru in 1913. About 1908, Charles senior did live in Timaru, possibly intermittently. A regrettable accident happened at the Waimate Hunt steeplechase on 19 August 1909, and Mr C. Cornelius was seriously hurt, breaking some ribs and rupturing the muscles of his left arm, so that he will be unable to use it for some time. While Florence was still in Timaru in 1911, Charles was back at Waimate, a horse trainer. Mrs F. Cornelius sold a ½-acre section with 5-roomed dwelling in Eaton Street, Waimate, in May 1911.

In 1915 Charles was recorded as the son of Mrs Cornelius, of the Stafford Street Registry Office. In 1919 a change of contact was advised by Public Trustee and medals – 1914-1915 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal - were to be sent to Mr C. W. Cornelius, Sutton, Taieri, Otago (Charles his father was a groom at Middlemarch in 1914). By 1919 his legal next-of-kin was his father C. W. Cornelius, at 11 Cutten Street, South Dunedin, the Scroll and Plaque to be sent to this address. He died in August 1935 and was buried in Invercargill. From 1916 until her death in December 1937 Mrs Cornelius was hospitalised for most of the time at Seacliff Asylum near Dunedin and later at Sunnyside Asylum in Christchurch. She was buried at Waimate with her little son. The estate of C. L. Cornelius, amounting to £15.10.7. (military pay), was administered by the Public Trustee.

Panel 75 of the Lone Pine Memorial at Gallipoli bears the name of Charles Lyall Cornelius. And he is remembered on the Timaru War Memorial as well as the Enfield, North Otago, War Memorial. The Enfield Memorial consists of large bronze medallions attached to wrought iron gates and plaques recording the names of service persons attached to the concrete pillars. On one of those plaques is the name Pte C. Cornelius. In 1919, oak trees were planted in North Otago, one for each man or women who paid the supreme sacrifice. Cornelius Charles Lyall, Private, killed in action, Gallipoli – one of the names received by the Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Committee in connection with the memorial tree-planting proposal.

In 1919 the sisters and brother of Charles remembered him in an In Memoriam notice in the Timaru Herald – “So loved, so mourned.” A photograph of Charles is printed in Volume 1 of “Onward: Portraits of the NZEF”; a photo of Charles as a child is provided by a great-nephew. There is more to Charles Lyall Cornelius’ story. Although his descendants never knew him, they remember him. Charles was the father of John Lazenby Robert Cornelius Jones who was born on 1 June 1913 at Christchurch to Elizabeth Jane Jones (born in Timaru). Elizabeth married in 1917 and had nine more children. And John Robert Jones, as he was known, married in 1938 and had nine children, many still living and with families.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [11 August 2013]; CWGC [11 August 2013]; NZ Defence Force Personnel Records (Archives NZ ref. AABK 18805 W5530 0028525) [17 November 2013]; Timaru Herald, 2 & 3 June 1902, 8 August 1907, 4 February 1908, 20 August 1909, 13 May 1911, 15 August 1914, 14 June 1915, 2 July 1915, 29 April 1919, Oamaru Mail, 2 June 1902, 8 August 1907, 15 August 1914, 14 & 15 June 1915, Waimate Daily Advertiser, 13 September 1902, 15 June 1915, North Otago Times, 11 September 1914, 14 & 22 June 1915, 10 June 2019, Otago Daily Times, 16 September 1914, 17 & 25 June 1915, Sun, 14 June 1915, Press, 14 June 1915, 21 June 1915, Evening Post, 4 February 1908, 14 June 1915, Lyttelton Times, 14 June 1915, Evening Star, 15 June 1915, Star, 16 June 1915New Zealand Herald, 23 June 1915, Otago Witness, 23 June 1915 (Papers Past) [17 & 19 November 2013; 08 February 2015; 07 September 2017; 02 April 2020; 08 June 2020; 12 July 2023; 29 & 30 December 2025]; Family tree (ancestry.com.au [17 November 2013]; Baptisms Index (South Canterbury Branch NZSG CD - Catholic Diocese of Christchurch) [08 February 2015]; Enfield War Memorial image (NZ History) [08 February 2015]. photograph of Charles as a boy taken about 1902 (approval from owner, Allen Heath, grandson of Charles' sister; per Rosemary Cryer on ancestry.com.au) [18 November 2013]; photograph in “Onward: Portraits of the NZEF”, Vol 1 (copy held in South Canterbury Branch NZSG library) [08 November 2014]; Eastern Cemetery, Invercargill (Invercargill City Council) [2014]; Waimate Cemetery (South Canterbury Branch NZSG Cemetery Records microfiche) [2014]; School Admission Records for brother Robert (South Canterbury Branch NZSG) [08 February 2015]; NZ Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com.au) [2013]; ]; Probate record (Archives NZ/FamilySearch) [01 May 2015]

External Links

• Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph record
• Military personnel file

Related Documents

• CORNELIUS Charles Lyall - newspaper clippings (pdf, 292.0 KB updated 16-Jan-2026)

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

TS