Private Garnet Wesley Cornwell
Cornwell on the left, Birmingham Daily Gazette, 7 July 1938
Garnet Wesley Cornwell was born on 16 January 1899 at Rowley Regis, Staffordshire, the third of four children of boat builder John Wesley Cornwell and his wife Caroline Darby Cornwell (née Mills). By the time of the 1911 Census he was living in Springfield Lane, Springfield, near Dudley, Staffordshire, with his parents and siblings.
Cornwell registered for military service in January 1917, on his eighteenth birthday. He was mobilised soon after, and on 3 March was posted to the 2/1 Derbyshire Yeomanry, a cyclist unit based in the Canterbury area. He was issued regimental number 76670.
Cornwell remained with that regiment in the UK until 12 September 1918, when he and 55 other men of the regiment were compulsorily transferred to the Corps of Hussars (No.81262) and posted to the 1st North Irish Horse Regiment, which was then serving in France as corps cyclist regiment to V Corps. They embarked at Folkestone for Boulogne that day, joining the regiment in the field on 18 September, where they were assigned to A, D and E Squadrons, joining in the fighting during the Advance to Victory offensive in the final weeks of the war.
On 7 June 1919, with around twenty other North Irish Horsemen, he was transferred to the Army Cyclist Corps (No.23907) and posted to IV Corps Cyclist Regiment, part of the Army of Occupation based in Rolsdorf, Germany.
Cornwell was demobilised and transferred to Class Z, Army Reserve, on 12 November 1919.
After the war he returned to Dudley. On 6 July 1938 he married Edna Hawkesford in St Martin's Church, Birmingham. At the time of the 1939 register they were living at Hightrees, Oakham Road, Dudley, Garnet working as a manager for the Holt Brewery Company. He died there on 4 October 1978.