John (Jack) Travers Cornwell VC - family tree question?

Question

I remember my Grandad telling me that he was strongly related to the boy soldier who won the Victoria Cross in the first world war at the battle of Jutland.

I am trying to find out how we were related.

Can anybody help me with a rough family tree of John Travers Cornwell VC?

He was born January 8th 1900 and was 16 when he was killed. He had at least two brothers I think. He came from Kent.

Thank you.

Answer 1

You will need to research your grandfather, as well, so the connection can be made somewhere up the line.

There is one family tree on ancestry.com with some information on him.

Answer 2

He was born in Essex, not Kent :o)

Birth registration

1900 March qtr.Cornwell  John Travers     W. Ham  4a 364  

JOHN (JACK) CORNWELL VC 8th January 1900 - Born at Clyde Cottage, Clyde Place, Leyton (Essex).

May 1905 - July 1910 - Attended Farmer Road School (now George Mitchell School).

1910 - Moved to Alverstone Road, Manor Park and attended Walton Road School (renamed after Cornwell in 1929).

1913? - 1915 - Left school for work. Possibly as a van boy for Brooke Bond or dray boy for Whitbread brewery, Ilford. He was a Scout in the 11th East Ham Troop, gaining his Tenderfoot badge and +2nd class as well as the Missions badge. Also won a special Boy Scout award for freeing a girl from a drain.

August 1914 - Tried to volunteer for the Navy but was turned down on grounds of age.

27 July 1915 - Joined the Navy.

http://www.royalnavalmuseum.org/info_she...

John Cornwell was the second son of a Manor Park couple who had both originated from country areas and had settled in the area. John Travers Cornwell had always been called 'Jack', had left school at fourteen and had a passion to be a sailor. His father - Eli, despite being well over military age had rejoined the army at the outbreak of The Great War, his elder brother was a factory worker and Jack was working as a van boy for Brooke Bond's.

http://www.lalamy.demon.co.uk/cornwell.h...

World War I Victoria Cross Recipient; at 16 years four months, one of the youngest ever. Born in Leyton, Essex, the son of a Royal Army Medical Corps veteran.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi...

This might be the marriage of his parents.

1884 sept. qtr.Cornwell.  Eli     W Ham  4a 139

and     "            Carpenter.  Alice     West Ham  4a 139

or        "            Marett.  Alice Maud     West Ham  4a 139

Edit :

1901 Census. Clyde Cott, Clyde Place, Leyton.

Eli Cornwell 47 Tram driver born.Bottisham, Cambridgeshire

Lily Cornwell 29 wife born Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire.

Arthur F. son 13

Alice M. dau 11

Ernest E. son 3

John T. son 1

I would suggest that Lily was his second wife, and that his first wife was Alice Maud Marrett, with Ernest and John being the sons of Lily.

Births:

1888 Mar. qtr.Cornwell  Arthur Frederick     W Ham  4a 38

1890 Mar. qtr.Cornwell  Alice Maud     Poplar  1c 683

1898 Mar. qtr.Cornwell  Ernest Edward     W. Ham  4a 20

1891 Census, Limehouse, London.

Eli Cornwell 39 milkman born Bottisham, Cambridge.

Alice Cornwell 26 wife born MAIDSTONE, KENT.

Arthur F. 3 born Stratford, London.

Alice M.  1 born Poplar, London.

These are the only two that seem to fit dates etc., but neither born in Maidstone, Kent. However info given to the census enumerator was often incorrect.

Birth :

1873 Jun.qtr.MARRETT Alice Maude Wandsworth  1d 513    

1874 Sept.qtr.CARPENTER  Alice Wandsworth  1d 589

I still feel that Alice Maude Marrett was Eli's first wife, mainly because their daughter was also Alice Maud.

I cannot find the death registration of Alice Maude or a marriage for Eli to Lily.

Hope you'll be able to pick the bones of this, and maybe make a connection with your grand-father, unfortunately people of the same name as somebody famous, often claim a family connection, I have had to disprove one such claim in my own family, on the other hand there may well be a connection, so good hunting !