Cornelius Smith was an engine fitter at Cammell Lairds shipyard.  He was one of the men lost on the submarine Thetis when she sank, in Liverpool Bay, in 1939.  Many of the victims of this disaster were buried on Anglesey, but two men were brought back to Wallasey and interred in Rake Lane Cemetery.  Close to Smith's grave is the headstone recording the loss of John Griffiths, also a Cammell Lairds engine fitter.  There were 103 men on board.  Only four men managed to escape.

In the tower of St Mary's church, behind the Priory in Birkenhead, there is a memorial to the men of the Thetis.  All the way up the staircase, inside the tower, are the names of each individual who was lost on the Thetis.  One the plaques names the four who survived.