CORNISH, Frank Robert
Frank Robert Cornish was born at Ipswich on 4 May 1868, youngest son of Alfred Cornish (1828-7 November 1908), a hardware-man, and his wife Emma Gowing (1830-September 1891), third daughter of Richard Gowing of Ipswich, who married at the Unitarian Chapel, Ipswich on 15 May 1856. In 1871, Frank was a 2-year-old, living at 36 Globe Lane [now St George’s Street], Ipswich with his parents, 40-year-old Alfred and 40-year-old Emma, and four siblings, Charles Alfred 12, Jessie Eliza 10, Herbert Samuel 8 and Walter Frederick 4, all Ipswich born. In 1881, a 12-year-old, living at 21 Queen Street, Ipswich with his parents, his 51-year father, a whitesmith, but his 51-year-old mother kept a china & glass shop, now with six children with the addition of Minna Eliza 9. In 1876, Frank entered the British Boys School, Ipswich and then studied at the Ipswich School of Science and Art winning his pass certificate in 1884. Frank's 61-year-old mother died at Ipswich in 1891 and in 1901, Frank was a ‘foreign traveller for Ipswich engineers' E. R. & F. Turner, living at 10 Adelphi Place, Ipswich with his widowed father, a china & glass dealer, who retained a housekeeper and a servant. Frank married at Newington parish church, Hythe, Kent on 17 September 1904, Ethel Crandall Lorden (1876-11 July 1946) and in 1911, a 42-year-old engineer’s export manager, living at ‘Kya Lami’, Henley Road, Ipswich with his 34-year-old wife and two children, Dorothy Joan 5 and Hubert Lorden 3. A painter of mostly landscapes in watercolour including views on the Thames, Devon, and Italy, but most were local scenes of Ipswich, and he was a member of Ipswich Art Club 1923-1937 and exhibited a total of sixty-five works including from 'Kya Lami', Montague Road, Felixstowe in 1923 two watercolours, 'Gandria, Lake Lugano' and 'Pontetresa, Italy', and a pen & colour drawing 'Convent School, Sanderstead, Surrey', in 1932 five water-colours, 'John Knox's House, Edinburgh', 'The Deben at Ramsholt', 'Constable's Birth town, East Bergholt', 'Pin Mill on the Orwell', 'Near Levington and River Orwell' and a pastel 'Isola Buona, nr. Venteniglia, Fontanddatu 1486' and in 1937, three watercolours 'Shalford Village, Surrey', 'Portofino, Liguria, Italy' and 'Mill House Corner, Flatford'. Frank Robert Cornish died at Kya Lami, Montague Road, Felixstowe on 25 July 1938, aged 70. He signed his work 'F. R. Cornish'.