Cornell, Alfred - I20111

Skilled crew ♂

Alfred Cornell
Born abt 1844
Nationality	English
Born	abt 1844 Romford
Genealogy Data
Person ID	I20111
Voyage Data
Voyage to Adelaide in 1864
Personal role	AB
Name on list	Alfred Cornell
Age on voyage	21
Last ship	Chaudiere
Joined date	06 Aug 1864
Joined place	London
Left date	04 May 1865
Left place	London
Left reason	Discharged
Voyage to London in 1865
Personal role	AB
Name on list	Alfred Cornell
Age on voyage	21
Last ship	Chaudiere
Joined date	06 Aug 1864
Joined place	London
Left date	04 May 1865
Left place	London
Left reason	Discharged
Voyage to London in 1868
Personal role	AB
Name on list	Alfred Cornell
Age on voyage	22
Wage	5-0-0
Last ship	William
Joined date	10 Dec 1867
Joined place	Adelaide
Left date	11 Apr 1868
Left place	London
Left reason	Discharged
Voyage to Adelaide in 1868
Personal role	Boatswain
Name on list	Alfred Cornell
Age on voyage	23
Wage	4-0-0
Last ship	City of Adelaide
Joined date	25 Jun 1868
Joined place	London
Left date	26 Feb 1869
Left place	London
Left reason	Discharged
Voyage to London in 1869
Personal role	Boatswain
Name on list	Alfred Cornell
Age on voyage	23
Wage	4-0-0
Last ship	City of Adelaide
Joined date	25 Jun 1868
Joined place	London
Left date	26 Feb 1869
Left place	London
Left reason	Discharged

Alfred Benjamin Cornell (1846-1926) was born near Romford in Essex, England. His parents were Thomas Cornell (1803-1872) and Mary nee Overway (1812-1896), and Alfred was the sixth of their ten children. The family lived on Lowlands Farm on the London Road, where his father was a farm bailiff who, on behalf of the land-owner, saw that the tenant farmers kept their farms in good order and paid the rent on time.

Young Alfred went to sea in his teen-age years, and for almost a decade he served on sailing ships engaged in the Australian, Indian and Canadian trades including the Star, the Chaudiere, the Moore and the Chandler. Among his voyages he visited Port Adelaide on the City of Adelaide, in 1864 and 1867 as an able seaman, and in 1868 as her boatswain.

He then chose to leave the open seas, and for a few years he had charge of several ketches engaged in the South Australian coastal trade between the Spencer's Gulf ports. He traded to Port Pirie before that township was surveyed in 1871, and while Master of the ketch Maid of Australia, he was the first mariner to navigate Port Broughton Creek.

He joined the S A Police Force in 1873 as a water-police constable. In the following year Alfred, aged 27, married 18 years-old Catherine Irving in the Roman Catholic Church at Port Adelaide. He joined the Port Adelaide Oddfellows Lodge soon after its establishment.

Living at Port Adelaide, Alfred and Catherine had six children:

• Alfred Benjamin jnr. was born in 1875, and by the age of 16 he had rescued small boys from drowning in the Port River on three occasions. He became a Customs Officer, and married Nellie Marquis at Holy Trinity, Adelaide in 1901, but he died suddenly of appendicitis at the age of 34.
• George, born in 1877, died at 15 months old.
• Catherine, 1879, married John Kinston in 1914 at Holy Trinity, Adelaide.
• Annie, born in 1882, married Paul Golehart at Alberton in 1912.
• Thomas Charles was born in 1884 but died at the age of 20.
• John, born 1886, married Dora Simon at Rosewater in 1908.

Alfred was promoted to corporal in 1881, and in 1904 was appointed an Assistant Inspector of Fisheries. He was associated with the Port Adelaide division during all his 32 years connection with the Water Police service until he retired in mid-1905.

Alfred Cornell died at his home on Williams Street, Rosewater in August 1926 aged 80 years. His widow Catherine survived him for only six weeks.