In 1886, he was admitted to the University of Cambridge as a non-collegiate student, graduating with a BA in 1888, taking honours in the Natural Sciences Tripos, becoming a member of King's College and appointed a demonstrator in chemistry while studying medicine in his spare time.

He was awarded an MA degree in 1891 and emigrated to South Africa in the same year, taking up the position of vice-principal at the Grahamstown Public School .

During his spare time he travelled on foot and covered large areas of the Eastern Cape, amassing an enormous amount of historical data.

The magistrate's office in Grahamstown had preserved a large number of letters, bound in volumes, and pertaining to public matters – material giving useful insight into life in the 1800s.

At that time Leander Starr Jameson was prime minister of the Cape Colony and with a bequest made by Alfred Beit, arranged to assist Cory in his investigations, provided that some publication would result.

Some time in 1915 Cory wrote and published, in a small print run, a paper entitled "A short history of slavery at the Cape.” George Cory married Gertrude Blades of Northwich in 1895, and they raised 6 children – Charles George Awdry 25 January 1898, Dulcibel Mowbray 1 November 1899, Sutu Alfrida 26 August 1902, John Hugh Mountain 12 July 1905, Robert Rhodes 24 June 1908, and Margaret Patricia Gertrude 28 July 1910.

Dulcibel Mowbray became a botany teacher and plant collector, marrying Paul Ribbink, the Librarian of Parliament in 1932, and settling in Cape Town.

He presided over the first dinner of the Rhodes University College alumni in London, at which occasion he was told that his portrait was to be painted by John Henry Amshewitz.

When Cory retired in 1925, he settled in Cape Town and spent his final years working in the Government Archives, having been appointed honorary archivist and historiographer.