Died
6 July 1944
Aged 33
Born
1910
Sources
Barrow News
Ancestry
Cumbria BMD
CWGC website
Place
Walks
Themes
Bombardier John Corless
IN
LOVING MEMORY OF
MY DEAR HUSBAND
ROBERT ORMAND CORLESS
WHO DIED APRIL 20TH 1948
AGED 57 YEARS
ELLEN CORLESS
BORN NOV 11TH 1889
DIED FEB 23RD 1963
ALSO JOHN, THEIR SON
KILLED IN ACTION JULY 6TH 1944
AGED 33 YEARS
ALSO ELLEN, THEIR DAUGHTER
DIED MAY 4TH 1975
AGED 60 YEARS
“AT REST”
Newspaper source: Barrow News 29 July 1944
The Barrow News 29 July 1944 reported:
Dalton Man’s Death in Italy
Mrs Corless, of 19, Lancaster-street, Dalton, has received word that her husband, Bdr. John Corless, R.A., was killed in Italy on 6 July.
Born in Dalton 33 years ago, he had served 12 years with the Royal Artillery. After six years in India, he served in France and was evacuated at Dunkirk. He later fought in Tunisia and the Middle East.
His parents are Mr. and Mrs. R. O. Corless, of 19, Buccleuch-street, Dalton, and previous to joining up he was employed in the sheet iron department of the Shipyard. He leaves a widow and one child.
Ancestry
According to a family tree on Ancestry, John married Mary Alma Knowles in June 1939, and their son Derek Corless was born 13 Jan 1940. On the CWGC website, they were living in Milnthorpe, Westmorland. John is buried in Arezzo War Cemetery, Italy.
1911 Census
John (aged 4 months) just appears on the 1911 Census on Ancestry, living at 6 Skelgate, Dalton in Furness, along with father Robert Ormand Corless (19), born Cockerham, Lancs, a coach painter for a coachbuilding firm, and mother Ellen (21) (née Dickinson), born Dalton.
1939 National Register
By the time of the 1939 National Register, the family had moved to 19, Buccleuch Street, Dalton, and the household consisted of Robert O. Corless, born 14 April 1891; Ellen Corless, born 26 February 1889, and a second Ellen Corless, born 11 November 1915. Both Ellens are on ‘unpaid domestic duties’. Robert was a Plate Edge Planer at the Shipyard.
1891 Census
Father Robert can be found in the 1891 Census as a 9 yr old living in Cockerham, where his father was a mason and builder. Elsewhere, his baptism is listed as 14 April 1891, so perhaps he was born earlier, or baptised on the day he was born. His middle name is spelt ‘Ormande’.
Cumbria BMD suggests that John had other siblings not mentioned above: Robert Ormand Corless (born 1912), and Bessie Corless (born 1913), who married Alan Capstick in 1936 at St Mary’s, Dalton.
