Cornelius McLaren was born on the 29 December 1897, the second child of William and Mary Jane McLaren of Alloa, Clackmannanshire, Scotland.William his elder brother was born two years earlier on 22 August 1895 a year after the marriage of William and Mary Jane (Nee Brannan) at the Bridge of Allan in the county of Perthshire. Tragedy struck the family in 1900 when on  April 17 William the father died after a massive heart attack at the age of 29. In 1901 Mary Jane and the two children lived at 220,East Vennel Road in Alloa though in 1917 the Mother is named as Next of Kin and then living in Edinburgh.

Cornelius joined the RN on 18 August 1913 as a “Boy 2c” on board the boy training ship HMS IMPREGNABLE (ex HMS HOWE) in Devonport dockyard, on the 7 March 1914 he was selected as a “Boy Telegraphist” and drafted to HMS VERNON on the 30 August for a further two weeks of branch training before joining HMS DOLPHIN on the 16 September  for five weeks and finally drafted to HMS MAIDSTONE on the 28th October 1914 into a ships compamny billet. After serving five months on MAIDSTONE he moved onto HMS ARROGANT on the 28 May 1915 and was rated up to Ordinary Telegraphist on the 29 December 1915. On the 12 May 1916 made up to Telegraphist before being drafted to HMS ALECTO  1 July 1916 completing ten weeks on board with a draft back to DOLPHIN on the 15 September for only a month when on the 17 October he rejoined MAIDSTONE for three months before returning to DOLPHIN on the 18 January 1917 for two months before a draft to HMS LUCIA on the 14 March had him heading North. LUCIA was based in Teeside but was moved to Scapa Flow with a detachment of C class submarines to cover the gap between the Shetlands and Scapa Flow in spring 1917.

On the 16 July 1917 C 34 departed the Scapa Flow anchorage area for a patrol area North of the island of Fair Isle but aroound noon on the 17 July she was found surfaced and not under way by the German submarine U 52 who then manouvered into an attack position and fired one torpedo into C34. The torpedo struck just aft of the bridge and caused a large explosion and C 34 sank very quikly. U 52 surfaced and found one crew member alive in the floating wreckage who was rescued and taken back to Germany as a POW.