03/07/2021
This headstone in Block 3 of the cemetery simply reads:
SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF
IDA
BELOVED WIFE OF
CHARLES L. CORNICK
WHO PASSED AWAY
JANUARY 11TH 1909
AGED 24 YEARS.
“FATHER IN THY GRACIOUS KEEPING
LEAVE WE NOW THIS SERVANT SLEEPING.”
ALSO
CHARLES L. CORNICK
HUSBAND OF THE ABOVE
DIED MARCH 19TH 1915
AGED 35 YEARS
“THY WILL BE DONE.”
Ida is recorded in the cemetery burial registers as being buried on the 14 January 1909, of 21 Ebenezer Terrace, Newport, aged only 24.
But, interestingly, Charles, although appearing on the headstone, is not recorded as being buried in the cemetery. It seemed a bit of research was in order to find out why not.
Ida (née Hicks) was born in 1884 in Cornwall. She married Charles Lesley Cornick in 1908 in Portskewett. She died on the 11 January 1909, according to her death certificate, at 21 Ebenezer Terrace, Newport, from complications arising from pregnancy at the tragically young age of 24.
On their marriage certificate Charles is shown as a ship’s steward (as was his father). He entered Tredegar Wharf school in Newport on 22 November 1886, where his birth is shown as 6 February 1880 and his parent/guardian is shown as Martha Cornick, of 41 Williams Street, Newport. He left there on 17 February 1893 where the entry says “Gone to work”. Whether directly or later, he obviously became a ship’s steward.
Further research uncovered the following shipping entry:
Cornick, Charles Leslie. 35. Steward. Newport, Mon. 66, Williams Street. Ship: “Etton”. Port of Registry: Hull. Nett tonnage: 1,795. Date: 19 March 1915. Off Longships. Missing.
A listing of “Deaths at Sea, reported to the Registrar-General of Shipping and Seamen under the Provisions of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894” for the month of May, 1915, lists:
Ship “Etton”. Off. No.: 121015. Date of death: 19/03/1915. Place of death: Off Longships. Male. 35. Steward. Of 66 Williams Street, Newport, Mon. Missing, suspect su***de. (Longships is a group of rocky islands off Land’s End.)
So we may never know definitely whether he took his own life or not but maybe he never really got over the loss of his young wife and their unborn child six years earlier.
No doubt one of very many sad stories behind the headstones in St Woolos cemetery.