Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthOctober 23, 1893
Place of BirthNorthampton, Northamptonshire, England
CountryEngland
Marital StatusSingle
Service Details
Regimental Number83256
ForceBritish Army
BranchRoyal Army Medical Corps
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Theatre of ServiceMesopotamia
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of Death1979
Age at Death85 or 86

Cory, Philip Thomas

Private Philip Thomas Cory was born in England and living in Canada when the war started. He returned to the UK in 1915 and enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps.

Philip was the son of William Henry Cory and Lucy Ann Freeman of Northampton, Northamptonshire, England. William and Lucy were married in 1877 and they had seven children, five sons (Harry, William, George, Charles and Philip) and two daughters (Olive and Dora). Philip, the youngest child, was born in Northampton on 23 October 1893. His father worked in the boot and shoe industry and he died in 1898 when Philip was five years old. When the 1901 census was taken all seven children were living with their widowed mother at 41 Kettering Road in Northampton. By 1911, at age 17, Philip was working as a baker’s apprentice. Three of his brothers – Harry, George and William – immigrated to Canada and settled in the town of Kenora in northwestern Ontario. Philip joined them there in 1914.

In the fall of 1915, just after the war entered its second year, Philip returned home to enlist with the Royal Army Medical Corps. He arrived in London on 10 October on the SS Sicilian, his occupation listed as painter and his address as 41 Kettering Road where his mother lived. According to an article in the Kenora Miner and News he was serving in Mesopotamia by late 1916. Nothing further is known of his war service. His brothers William Roger and George Herbert both enlisted with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. William died of wounds in 1917 and he’s buried in a cemetery in Northampton. George survived the war and returned to Canada in May 1919.

Philip moved back to Canada after the war, arriving in Halifax on the SS Cassandra on 10 December 1919. When the 1921 census was taken he was living in Kenora with his brothers Harry and George and Harry’s wife and children. Three years later, in February 1924, Philip returned to England again. He was married in Potterspury, Northamptonshire in 1931. His wife, Eleanor Caroline Meakins, was born in Potterspury in 1903, the oldest child of John and Elizabeth Meakins.

Philip and Eleanor had one son, Roger William (1933-2006). Philip passed away in Northampton in 1979 and Eleanor died there two years later.

Philip is commemorated on the Borough of Northampton First World War Roll of Honour.

By Becky Johnson

Cory-Philip-90


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