Nicholas Edward Cornish, commonly known as N. E. Cornish, was a civil engineer. He spent most of his career at the Kiangnan Arsenal, near Shanghai, China, where he supervised the construction of arms for the Imperial Chinese government. He arrived in China in the 1880s and returned to England for his retirement in the 1920s. 

The Bursting of a 48-Ton Krupp Gun, and the Method of Repairing It,  by Nicholas Edward Cornish, Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Volume 144, 1901.  N. E. Cornish investigates an 1896 accident in which an artillery cannon exploded, killing its Chinese gun crew.

Big Chinese Guns, by Frank G.Carpenter, The Deseret Weekly, Volume 48, March 20, 1894. The writer visits the Kiangnan Arsenal and is given a tour by N. E. Cornish. The article starts on page 654.

 A Function in the Kiangnan Arsenal, by V. P. Suvoong (Shu Feng), The Republican Advocate (of China), March 30, 1912. The author writes about an event honoring his friend and colleague, N. E. Cornish. Includes photo of Cornish and the Kiangnan Arsenal staff. 

Genealogy and Family Relations

NE married Annie Nicholson in 1878, who already had a son from a previous marriage, George Thomas Nicholson (born 1869), and who bore a daughter, Annie Cornish, in 1880. While in China, he fathered two children by different Chinese mothers. The first child was a daughter, Elizabeth Cornish (born 1890); and the second was a son, John Smith. After NE's first wife died in 1924, he married Florence Marshall.

Who's Who -- Diagram and Email

Cornish Family Tree 1657-1895
Cornish Genealogy 1600-2007
Frost Genealogy (NE's mother Ann Frost) 1681-1914
Morgan Genealogy (NE's great-grandmother Elizabeth Morgan) 1750-2002

Fei Family Tree (NE's daughter Elizabeth Cornish Fei) 1832-present

A Life Once Lived in Peking -- an Excerpt, by Chi-Yun Fei Eskelund. NE's Chinese granddaughter describes her only meeting with him.

A Christian Chinese Wedding, Missions: An International Baptist Magazine, Volume 5, January, 1914. An article about the marriage of Elizabeth Cornish and Hsing-Jen Fei in Chicago, Illinois, on July 21, 1914. Includes photographs.

2011 Family Reunion

Photographs and Documents

	NE Cornish sisters and daughters
	Cornish and Goddard family portrait
	NE Cornish, Nicholas Faithfull, and Nicholas Jones
	Cornish family bible page, 1780-1878
	NE Cornish Family Heirlooms
	NE Cornish letter to Lloyd George, offering to help in the war effort, 1915
	NE Cornish caricature, 1925

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Cornish/Frost/Morgan family data compiled by Barbara Hoad Tunley, courtesy of Bruce Tunley
Chinese family data compiled by Gray Chang

©2010 Gray Chang