List of Cornish soldiers, commanders and sailors

This is a list of Cornish people who were notable soldiers, seamen or airmen.

Army and Air Force officers and other ranks[edit]

Major Arthur Agar-Robartes, British Army officer and cricketer
Captain Thomas Agar-Robartes, British Army officer and MP
Harold "Harry" Billinge (died 2022), sapper, D-Day veteran^[1]
Colonel James Carne VC DSO, British Army officer
John Gilbert "Jack" Cock DCM MM, soldier and footballer
Horace Augustus Curtis VC, British soldier
Robert Davies, Lieutenant of the Royal Engineers awarded the G.C. for bomb-disposal in 1940 saving St. Paul's Cathedral.
John Enys, British soldier during the American Revolution.
James Fynn VC, British soldier
Lieutenant Colonel Sidney Godolphin, soldier and Member of Parliament
Captain Albert Jacka VC, MC and Bar, the first Australian to win the VC at Gallipoli (his family migrated to Victoria from St Buryan)
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Arthur Olver, British army officer and expert on animal husbandry
Rick Rescorla, U.S. war hero and 9/11 victim (1939–2001)
Sergeant Steven Roberts, the first soldier to die in the invasion of Iraq
Captain George Symons VC, DCM, artillery officer
Sir John Trelawny, 1st Baronet, soldier in the English Civil War
Captain Arthur Tremayne, soldier in the Crimean War; MP for Truro
Captain Robert Walling, Royal Garrison Artillery

Sir John Arundell, Cornish Royalist commander
Colonel Edward Bolitho, British Army officer
Major-General Charles Edward-Collins, British Indian Army officer.^[4]
Major-General Sir Wyndham Childs, British Army officer and Assistant Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis
Sir Walter Gilbert, 1st Baronet, general
Bevil Grenville, Cornish Royalist commander
Sir Richard Grenville, 1st Baronet (or Granville) (1600–1658), Cornish Royalist leader during the English Civil War
Major General Sir Gerald Kitson, British Army officer
Philip Melvill, Governor of Pendennis Castle, Falmouth
William Scawen, Royalist commander in the English Civil War
Major-General Sir William Penn Symons KCB, British Army officer
Richard Trant (d. 2007), general in the British army
John Trevanion, Cornish Royalist commander
John Johns Trigg, officer in the Virginia militia, American Civil War
Stephen Trigg, brother of John, politician and officer in the Virginia militia, American Civil War
David Tyacke, GOC Singapore District, last Commanding Officer of the DCLI
James Howard Williams (Elephant Bill), lieutenant-colonel in the British Indian Army and elephant expert
Sir Charles Wills, British Army general and politician

John Eliot, captain in the Royal Navy and Governor of West Florida
James Erisey, privateer
Captain William Hennah, RN
Robert Peverell Hichens, DSO, DSC, lieutenant commander, RNVR
William Hicks, Lieut. RN
Sir Edward Nicholl, commander, RNR
William Odgers, VC, sailor in New Zealand
Ernest Herbert Pitcher, VC, petty officer in the Royal Navy
Spry family, of St Anthony in Roseland: several members of the family were commanders in the Royal Navy
John St Aubyn, 4th Baron St Levan, hereditary peer and decorated Royal Navy officer
Walter Tremenheere KH (1761-1855), colonel of marines^[5]
James Trevenen, captain in the Russian Navy; officer in the Royal Navy
Joseph Trewavas, VC, seaman in the Royal Navy
Mark Versallion, lieutenant, RNR
Samuel Wallis, commander in the Royal Navy and explorer of the Pacific
Charles Bampfield Yule, lieutenant, RN

Sir John Arundell of Lanherne alias John Fitzalan, 1st Baron Arundel (died 1379), naval commander and Lord Marshal of England
Sir John Arundell, admiral, known as 'Jack of Tilbury'
William Bligh, captain of HMS Bounty, botanist, governor of New South Wales, Royal Navy admiral
Edward Boscawen, Royal Navy admiral
Sir Frederick Edward-Collins, Admiral RN; Acting Governor and Commander in Chief of the Fortress of Gibraltar
Sir Frank Hopkins, Royal Navy Admiral, a former captain of the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal
Rear-Admiral Bartholomew James (1752 – 1828), naval officer and writer
Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, Royal Navy admiral
Admiral Barrington Reynolds, RN, notable for an anti-slavery expedition
Rear-Admiral Robert Carthew Reynolds, RN^[6]
Sir Bartholomew Sulivan, Royal Navy admiral and hydrographer
Rear-Admiral Thomas Ball Sulivan, Royal Navy officer
Richard Darton Thomas, Royal Navy admiral
Sir John Forster "Sandy" Woodward, Royal Navy admiral

^ Harry Billinge: Cornwall D-Day veteran dies aged 96; 5 April 2022
^ Teach Yourself To Fly; by Squadron Leader Nigel Tangye, R.A.F.O. (1941) (Reprinted by Hodder, 2008; ISBN 978-0-340-96614-3)
^ Tangye began his service career in the Royal Navy.
^ Who Was Who
^ The Dictionary of National Biography; the Concise Dictionary from the beginnings to 1930. London: Oxford University Press, 1939; p. 1313
^ Reynolds, Robert Carthew, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, J. K. Laughton, Retrieved 29 March 2008