Cornelius McLaren was born on 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 (née Brannan) at the Bridge of Allan in the county of Perthshire. Tragedy struck the family in 1900 when on 17 April, 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 Royal Navy on 18 August 1913 as a Boy Second Class on board the boy training ship HMS IMPREGNABLE (ex HMS HOWE) in Devonport dockyard. On 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.  He was finally drafted to HMS MAIDSTONE on 28 October 1914 into a ship’s company billet. After serving five months in MAIDSTONE he moved to HMS ARROGANT on 28 May 1915 and was rated up to Ordinary Telegraphist on 29 December 1915.

On 12 May 1916 he was made up to Telegraphist before being drafted to HMS ALECTO on  1 July 1916 completing ten weeks on board.  He then had a draft back to DOLPHIN on 15 September for only a month when on 17 October he rejoined MAIDSTONE for three months before returning to DOLPHIN on the 18 January 1917.  After two months he received a draft to HMS LUCIA on 14 March which 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, HMS C34 departed the Scapa Flow anchorage area for a patrol area North of the island of Fair Isle but around noon on the 17 July she was found surfaced and not making way by the German submarine U52 who then manoeuvred into an attack position and fired one torpedo into C34. The torpedo struck just aft of the bridge and caused a large explosion and C34 sank very quickly. U52 surfaced and found one crew member alive in the floating wreckage who was rescued and taken back to Germany as a POW.

Cornelius McLaren is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial on Panel 25.