After leaving school Corfield worked for a shipping company in Liverpool, the T. &amp; J. Harrison Line, run by an uncle, Thomas Fenwick Harrison. Soon after starting work the Anglo-Boer war broke out in South Africa. Corfield immediately joined the Volunteers camped on Salisbury Plain, but later enlisted in the Baden Powell Police, sailing for Africa in December 1900. In June 1902 he was recommended for a commission, but this was rejected due to his youth.