John Thomas Corner (1849-1913)
1913 Obituary [1]
Engineer Rear-Admiral JOHN THOMAS CORNER died suddenly at Bad Neuheim, Germany, on August 4, 1912, aged seventy-three.
Born at Sheerness in 1849, he entered for a special course of training at the Royal School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, South Kensington, in 1868, where he took his fellowship degree in 1872.
He joined the Royal Navy as an assistant-engineer in 1871, became an engineer in 1876, chief engineer in 1884, staff engineer in 1888, and fleet engineer in 1892.
He was promoted to the post of Inspector of Machinery in 1899, and was made an Engineer Rear-Admiral in 1902.
Admiral Corner was a member of the Admiralty Committee of Reference for Machinery Designs, 1891-1904, and of Admiral Buller's Machinery Committee, 1892-93. He invented a Whitehead torpedo dropping gear in 1875, whilst serving in the Mediterranean Sea as an Engineer, for which he received the Admiralty's commendation and a gratuity of £100. He was made a C.B. in 1907.
In 1909 he retired from the Navy, and commenced practice as an engineer in Victoria Street, Westminster, besides serving as a Director of Bull's Metal and Metalloid Company, Limited, and of the Argyll Motor Company, Limited.
Admiral Corner was elected a member of the Institute of Metals in 1910, and read a Paper on "Some Practical Experience with Corrosion of Metals" at the Annual General Meeting of the Institute in January 1911.