His modest grave stone which is Grade II listed, is granite in the form of a Celtic ring cross with 5 bosses. Raised lettering in a sunken plaque on the base reads –
‘IN LOVING MEMORY OF/ GEORGE CORSON/ ARCHITECT/ SON OF JAMES CORSON/ OF BEREHOLM, DUMFRIES/ NOV 18th 1910, AGED 80/ GOD IS LOVE’. On the right return of the base: ‘HARRIOT MARY/ GOUGH CORSON/ HIS WIFE/ DIED MAY 4th 1928/ AGED 77 YEARS/ AT REST’.
George Corson was founder and first president of the West Yorkshire Society of Architects 1876–78 and again President 1897–99. He was born in Dumfries where he was articled to Walter Newall. He then moved to Leeds in 1849 to join his brother William Reid Corson who had a practice there with Edward La Trobe Bateman. However, his brother left Leeds in 1860 and moved to Manchester, leaving George Corson in charge of the practice.
Corson was responsible for very many buildings in Leeds including:
- the Grand Theatre (1877-78), with his assistant James Robinson Watson – Grade II* listed
- the municipal buildings (1878-1884) – Grade II* listed, now housing the city library.
- School Board Offices Calverley Street (1878-1881)
- an extension (1891-92) to George Gilbert Scott’s Grade I listed Leeds General Infirmary
- many large houses in Headingley including the Grade II* listed Spenfield built in 1875 for the banker Henry Oxley.
Corson won a competition for the landscaping of Roundhay Park in 1873, and in 1874 designed the layout and many of the buildings at Lawns Wood cemetery where he himself was the first to be buried in the 1910 extension.
