Private Orazio Abbott Corte was born as Orazio Corte on 27 December 1891 in Turin, Italy, the son of Ferdinando Corte and Maria Corte née Castagneri, a family that hailed from Andorno, Italy. His mother was described as an "invalid" and he came to England in 1907, more than a year after his father's death in 1905. He stayed with George Abbott (1844-1925), a retired surgeon, and Edith Abbott (1860-1952) an ex-teacher of drawing, in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. He was adopted by them in 1908 (aged 17) and was granted a certificate of naturalization on 22 October 1913.
In England he studied at Skinners' School, Tunbridge Wells and, from 1910 to 1915, at the University College, London, where he took a first in his B.Sc examination and was elected to a Jessel Studentship in Mathematics. He extended his stay at the college in 1913, in pursuit of an M.A., having committed to the teaching of mathematics and research work.
The 1911 census shows him as a science student living at 2 Rusthall Park, Tunbridge Wells, with his adopted mother, together with a female general domestic servant. (His adopted father was away on census night visiting friends in Topsham, Devon).
When Italy entered the war in 1915 on the Allied side he made an unsuccessful attempt to enlist in the Italian Army and his poor eyesight prevented his entry into the University College London's Officers Training Corps. He was however accepted on 13 December 1915 by the War Office for garrison duty only but was subsequently transferred on 21 July 1916 as a Private into the 3rd Battalion, The Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), and entered France as part of the British Expeditionary Force. On 12 August 1916 he transferred to the 7th (Service) Battalion, The Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), his service number being G/11593 and he served as a machine gunner in the regiment.
He died as a result of shellfire, aged 24 years, on 18 November 1916, in an attack on the Grandcourt Trench, in the Battle of the Ancre and as he has no known grave he is commemorated on Pier and Face 11C of the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, Rue de l'Ancre, Thiepval, France. Probate was granted jointly on 17 January 1917 to his adopted mother and to Miss Charlotte Maud Beatty, to whom he had become engaged in May 1916. His effects totalled £1,557-5s-4d. He was posthumously awarded the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal.
He is commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission' website, on the War Memorial and the associated Roll of Honour at Tunbridge Wells, the Skinners' School war memorial. and the Skinners' School Leopard Magazine Obituary.
A scholarship in his memory - the Corte Studentship in Mathematics - was founded in 1953 at University College, London, in accordance with the will of his adopted mother.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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