George Henry Corless was born at Benson Street in Liverpool, Lancashire, England on 26 June 1885. He was the son of Irish Protestant parents, picture frame maker Martin Corless and the former Frances Hill, a native of Dublin. He had nine known elder siblings. 

George went to sea as a young man and is known to have served as a waiter aboard Saxonia, Ivernia, Campania and Carmania before joining the crew of the Carpathia. In April 1912 he was serving as a waiter aboard the eastward-bound voyage of the Carpathia when that ship rescued the survivors of the Titanic. 

George Corless continued to serve at sea during WWI and in the following years served aboard a host of ships, including Bohemian, Samaria, Caronia, Scythia and the new Britannic. 

In 1930 Corless married Hannah Jones (b. 1892) but the couple remained childless and lived at 29 Benson Street for a number of years. He died in 1936, just shy of his 51st birthday, and was buried on 20 May that year in Toxteth Park Cemetery (section 14, grace 453). His widow Hannah died in 1965.