1st Battalion Border Regiment
Archibald (Archie) Alexander Cornock was born at Wotton-under-Edge on 9 May 1889, the thirteenth of fourteen children born to Ruth and Charles Cornock.
He enlisted in the Army in 1906, when aged seventeen, and joined the 1st Battalion Border Regiment. He saw much overseas service prior to the Great War, in particular tours of duty in Burma and India. He married a girl from Carlisle, where the Border Regiment had its HQ, and was a noted boxer, winning many cups and medals in Regimental tournaments. At the outbreak of war he had risen to the rank of sergeant.
The 1st Borders arrived back from India in January 1915 and on 17 March 1915 sailed for Alexandria, arriving on the 28th. Here they trained for beach landings before sailing to the Greek island of Lemnos, arriving on 10 April. After further training at Mudros Bay, in scaling rope ladders and beach landings, the Battalion (part of 87 Brigade,29 Division) sailed for the Gallipoli Peninsula on 24 April and landed on X Beach at 7.15am the following day. The landing met with little opposition but after the coast cliffs were scaled the Turkish opposition strengthened and little progress was made inland.
From the landing until 5 May 1915, the 1st Borders were located at either X,Y or Gully Beaches, in reserve or manning the front line facing the slopes of Achi Baba. Archie Cornock came through all this action unscathed.
On 14 May his Battalion was in reserve at X Beach when he was killed by a stray Turkish shell. He was buried locally but after the war his remains were never found and he is one of the many names on the Helles Memorial to the Missing. He is also commemorated on the Wotton-under-Edge War Memorial, along with two of his brothers.