Killed in action aged 27
No known grave
Nigel Cornwallis was born at St. Mary’s Entry, Oxford, the second son of Falconer Madan and Frances Jane nee Hayter, a daughter of the renowned railway engineer, Harrison Hayter.
In 1912, Falconer Madan was appointed Bodley’s Librarian. During his time, the new underground book-store under Radcliffe Square was opened, the Library records put into systematic arrangement, and the Bodleian Quarterly Record, a periodical of more than local interest, was started. He resigned the Librarianship in 1919.
Nigel was baptised at St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford on 29 March 1889.
In 1899, Nigel was boarding at Summer Fields, 256 Banbury Road, while his parents and several siblings were living at 94 Banbury Road. In 1902 he played for the Cricket XI, winning a King’s Scholarship to Eton in the same year.
He went on to Eton where he was a King’s Scholar, and came up to Christ Church as a Scholar in 1908. He graduated in 1912 and went into business in Liverpool.
At the outbreak of war, he was in business in Liverpool. He was commissioned a temporary Second Lieutenant on 19 September 1914 in the 8th Battalion King’s Own [Royal Lancaster Regiment] and promoted Lieutenant the following year.
He was killed near the Bluff, Ypres and is commemorated on Panel 12 at the Pyres (Menin Gate) memorial.
His brother Geoffrey was a celebrated anthologist and “man of letters”.