Author: Samer Al-Sharawi

THOMAS CLARKSON Slave Trade Abolitionist Aug. 2022

The Reverend John Clarkson (1710-1764) #12444 was the Headmaster of Wisbech Grammar School in Cambridgeshire. He had 2 sons, Thomas and John.
Lt. John Clarkson RN (1764-1828) #5605 saw service in the West Indies where he experienced at first hand the brutality of the slave trade. In 1791 he was engaged to organise a fleet to take freed slaves from Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone where he later became Governor. Towards the end of his life, he settled in Woodbridge where a blue plaque in Church Street commemorates him. He married Susannah Lee (1764-1832) #5604, daughter of Hannah Thornley (1735-1773) whose maiden name was later chosen for Felix Cobbold #201.
Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846) #12445 attended his father’s school before going on to St. Paul’s in London. Whilst up at St. John’s College, Cambridge he wrote a prize-winning essay “Is it right to make slaves of others against their will?” This proved to be a turning point in his life culminating in him changing the abolition campaign into one of the major issues of the day. Working with William Wilberforce (1759-1833) who became their political leader and Granville Sharp (1735-1813) they succeeded in securing the passage of the Slave Trade Act in 1807 which banned slavery in Britain and the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833 that banned slavery in most of the British Empire.
The Clarkson Memorial on Bridge Street, near his former home in Wisbech includes his statue on a high platform above which rises a canopy in the form of a spire. It is 68 feet in height and on three sides are tributes to William Wilberforce, Granville Sharp and a manacled slave in a beseeching attitude. On the fourth side is an inscription to Thomas Clarkson himself. The memorial was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878), a brother of Reverend John Scott, vicar of St. Peter’s Wisbech. Sir George also designed the Prince Albert Memorial in Hyde Park, London.
In our nationwide retrospective horror of slavery, we should not overlook the fine lives of those who worked so hard to overcome it.

2^nd Lt. PIERS EDGCUMBE (1914-1940)                                     June 2022

In March last year I wrote that after 17 years of investigation it had been established that a grave with a headstone bearing the words A SOLDIER OF THE 1939-1945 WAR – AN OFFICER actually contained the body of 2^nd Lt. Piers Edgcumbe #2378 and that he was to be given a new headstone which accurately marks his final resting place.

On 27^th May this year his grave in Esquelbecq Military Cemetery, France was rededicated 82 years to the day after he was killed.  His new headstone bears an inscription chosen by his family which reads:

Whatsoever is true, noble, pure, generous and of good report: these things he pursued wholeheartedly.

Alongside family, the service of rededication was attended by representatives of the British Embassy, serving soldiers of The Royal Lancers (Queen Elizabeth’s Own) who made up a Lance Guard and representatives of Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge.  Born at Hatfield Place in Hertfordshire he was described as being blessed with considerable gifts both intellectual and athletic and having a degree in Engineering he was employed in his father’s Electrical Engineering business Everett, Edgcumbe and Co when he enlisted in March 1939.

The large number of family members who attended included his nieces, Lady Rosamund Woodard #858, Penelope Douglas-Riley #857, Caroline Weatherby #2946 and his nephew Piers McCausland #2985.  It was to Lady Woodard that the Union Flag which would have covered Piers’ coffin was given for safe keeping at the end of a moving ceremony which took place in bright sunlight.

Anthony Cobbold.

LADY KENYA ELEANOR TATTON-BROWN MCSP                                  June 2022

A Personal Reflection

It is with profound regret that I have read of Kenya’s death on 21^st May aged 98.  I first met Kenya née Kitchener (#1490 on the web family tree) and her brother Henry the 3^rd and last Earl Kitchener (#1487) in Shropshire at a Monins / Kitchener / Bovill family 80^th birthday get-together in 2006.  She was a grand niece of 1^st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum who was tragically lost when HMS Hampshire struck a mine outside Scapa Flow in 1916.

It being early days in my exploration of the family I was excited to be invited to a gathering of such august folk but my enthusiasm was tempered by an equal dose of anxiety.  I need not have worried.  Kenya was helpful and generous, as was her brother, from that day onwards.  I visited them a number of times at Westergate Wood and was always made welcome and put at my ease.  Both became generous supporters of The Cobbold Family History Trust.

Born in 1923 she served in the WRNS in World War II and became a Chartered Physiotherapist.  From almost our first meeting she would gently chide me for my poor posture and to this day I have her in mind when I do my exercises.  I was privileged to attend  her and her brother’s 90^th birthday parties, both of which added substantially to my family knowledge.  Her many kindnesses to me and to the Trust have been echoed by her three daughters to whom my warmest condolences are offered.

Her generosity and kindness apart, I shall remember Kenya particularly for her knowing glances, piquant smile and dry wit which I admired so greatly.

Anthony Cobbold

THE SOIL ASSOCIATION                                             May 2022

Every supermarket offers organic products and many of us buy them.  Certification is provided by the Soil Association, two of whose founders appear on our family tree.

Lady Evelyn (Eve) Barbara Balfour OBE (1898-1990) #7700 on the family tree, author of Living Soil which has been reprinted dozens of times is normally credited with being the prime mover. She was certainly its first president.  Her co-founders in 1946 included Jorian Jenks, Friend Sykes and Perronelle Mary Chevallier (1902-2004) #709.

Eve knew she wanted to be a farmer from age 12.  She was the daughter of Gerald William MP PC, 2^nd Earl of Balfour (1853-1945) #3715 and Elizabeth Edith (Betty) Bulwer-Lytton (1867-1942) #3711 and was the niece of Arthur Balfour KG OM PC (1848-1930) #14489, a former prime minister.  She attended what is now Reading University and believed that ‘natural’ farming produced food which was in some way more wholesome than food produced with more intensive methods.  She believed that mankind’s future and human health were dependent on how the soil was treated.

In 1939 she embarked on the Haughley Experiment in Suffolk where she was a neighbour of Perronell whose family ran the Aspall cider and apple juice business.  It was the results of this experiment which provided the fundamental reasons for the foundation of the Soil Association.  That her reputation lives on to this day is evidenced by a poster spotted recently in a garden centre.

DAVID COBBOLD (1937-2022).  A Personal Reflection.                     May 2022

I first met David, albeit very briefly when, as an undergraduate he had digs in Park Parade, Cambridge, close to those of a friend.  Little did I know then how significant he would become in my later life.  Those were the days when his father was Governor of The Bank of England and we were both expected to stand our friends free beers because the Cobbold brewery in Ipswich owned pubs in Cambridge.

In the early days of my interest in family history Jill and I were invited to lunch one Sunday with his parents.  Lost in the lanes of Hertfordshire, before the days of satnavs, we were late arriving not knowing that punctuality was one of his parents’ red lines.

Luckily, I survived because later when I enquired whether David would be happy to become the founder patron of The Cobbold Family History Trust he readily agreed and his generous support has been welcome and appreciated ever since.  One memorable year, when visiting Knebworth, he gave the Trust a watercolour of the wedding procession of his great, great grandparents in 1837.  They were Reverend Charles Boutell, author of Boutell’s Heraldry and many other archaeological works and Mary Chevallier, daughter of Reverend John (Barley) Chevallier, the discoverer of the eponymous malting barley which became the barley of choice for over half the nation’s maltsters..

The illustration, which showed the names of everybody in the four coaches, led us to some most interesting research and was chosen for that year’s Trust Christmas card.  This is but one instance of his help to a fledgling body and typifies his life-long caring for the underdog.  Before illness robbed us of him, he knew that the Trust’s archive was destined to come to Knebworth and I derive particular pleasure from his approval.  My life and that of the Trust were unquestionably enhanced by having had the privilege of his patronage.

Anthony Cobbold

LONG EDDIE and the Large Cat                                                        May 2022

For the last few years, I have been the fortunate recipient of monthly ‘Jottings’ by a sensitive Suffolk artist and naturalist called Reg Snook.  Hitherto I have resisted the temptation to share these but last month my defences crumbled and I sought Reg’s permission to reproduce his latest.  Reg has no particular connection to the Cobbold family but I deem the fact that his tale is set in Suffolk sufficient.  It’s just a jolly good little read.  Anthony Cobbold.  Here it is:

I have introduced you to Long Eddie before, a gentle man, tall of course (hence his title) cultured and kind but not really of this world.  He often came to my studio just to chat about art and nature.  He loved watching me work, never got in my way and often came up with hidden gems like the time when he and his friends (as I have said before mainly damsels) saw staring orange eyes at the dead of night in the depth of Rendlesham Forest (of course, they were long-eared owls).

Eddie lived there in a caravan hidden amongst the trees and there he worked with wood. He made wooden hurdles, fences and pallets all on his own.  He loved nature – all things nature from tiny insects to the animals that roamed his neighbourhood.  When Eddie arranged parties he had no trouble in encouraging similarly-minded people (mainly damsels) to attend.  They would dance away the hours in the depth of the forest, swaying in the moonlight to weird music and sampling magic mushrooms soaked in Cinzano.  No wonder Eddie could never recall much about these events or indeed who attended them.  It was one such party that Eddie and company saw strange staring orange eyes – ghostly orange eyes.  These eyes were nothing more than the roost of long-eared owls spending time in a tangled mass of gorse stems but to Eddie’s entourage, under the influence of said magic mushrooms soaked in Cinzano, it must have been really scary.  If Eddie, on his travels, found an injured bird or animal, he would deliver it to me either to be repaired or despatched.  Eddie could not kill anything himself.

So, Eddie came to see me, long hair, drooping moustache and beard always with a smile.  He had got to know long-eared owls and enjoyed dissecting their pellets to find out what their prey had been.  We chatted about birds in general (not the damsel type), animals and the flowers of the area and then Eddie, not one to exaggerate or tell porkies, gently told me of a black animal that lived near his caravan.  “Quite large”, he said, “with long tail dragging on the ground”.  He believed it was a panther.  Yes, Eddie, of course Eddie. “I didn’t think that you would believe me”, he said in his low soft voice.  “Was it before you imbibed the magic mushrooms soaked in Cinzano, you know, before your eyes glowed orange”, I asked.  I could see Eddie was hurt by this crass remark.  “Knew you would not believe me”.  “Eddie, if you said you saw a panther, then I will take your word for it”.  Anyway, my gentle friend said, “I have taken some castes of its footprints!”  Now, I am no expert on big cats but these plaster casts of this animal’s paws proved that it was not a dog but a large cat.  “How often do you see this creature?” I asked.  “Not very often but not always at night, yesterday I saw it at midday” he replied. 

I told my gentle friend that I would do my best to identify the footprint cast.  “I bet it is a female cat”, I said.  Eddie smiled and left.  “I will call back sometime” he said.  With that he was gone.  I did not know what to make of this conversation.  If Eddie said he had seen a panther then he had definitely seen a panther.  Anyway, I had a paw-print.  I guaranteed that Eddie had not told his female entourage that he had seen this large cat.  (I called his friends ‘fairies’ as in Midsummer Night’s Dream.)

As a Government Inspector, I attended one or two meetings a year when the whole Inspectorate would meet up to discuss the latest Governmental proposals for the environment.  The next meeting, a couple of months after my chat with Eddie, just happened to be held at the London Zoo.  I remembered to take the plaster casts with me and I found time to visit the Zoo Superintendent’s office.  Of course, I knew what the answer might be and Eddie’s cast was identified as being that of a panther’s paw-print and the Superintendent was not really surprised.  “We get reports of panthers on the loose all the time” he said.  “Strangely we have never found a dead one but I have seen panther- paw casts.  Even at a distance you can tell a panther by its long tail which seems to drag on the ground.” Well, there you are, Eddie was right.  I couldn’t wait to tell him.

Months went by but no Eddie.  I put the plaster cast on the window sill of my studio and really forgot about it.  I could not contact my gentle friend, I did not know where his caravan was situated but Eddie did eventually return, clean shaven, hair trimmed and wearing a suit with a waste-coat.  I did not recognise him at first but as usual he was polite and well-spoken.  His life had changed somewhat.  He almost looked ‘normal’ but there was still something different about him.  Actually, he had married a damsel, they had a young child and lived in rented accommodation near Wickham Market.  I looked closely at him.  He eyes were not orange and the dentist had been at work on his teeth.  I was pleased to see him.  “Ah, I have news for you,” I said, “before I forget.  I took your cast of the panther’s paw to London Zoo and it was confirmed that it was what you had seen.  It was a panther near your caravan”.  Eddie glanced at the cast and then with a serious and straight face he said, “I don’t know what you are talking about.  A panther in Rendlesham Forest.  Don’t be daft.”  I still have the cast and haven’t seen Long Eddie for years.  I don’t suppose fairies still dance the night away in the forest and, as for Eddie, all that took place in another life.  And, as for panthers roaming the countryside of Suffolk, don’t be daft.

Reg Snook

In the course of my research, I came across this picture of the 9^th Duke of Devonshire (1868-1938) #2452 with his 17 grandchildren taken around 1930.  He succeeded to the title in 1906 and was Governor General of Canada, 1916 to 1921 and Secretary of State for the Colonies 1922 to 1924.  His full name was Victor Christian William Cavendish KG PC GCMG GCVO TD and he was succeeded by his son Edward William Spencer Cavendish (1895-1950)#9501.

Sadly the 9^th Duke suffered a stroke in 1925 which permanently affected his brain.  He changed from being the most easy-going and good-humoured man to an irritable old gentleman, but he loved babies and little children as can be seen in our photograph which comes from a family album.  He is seen holding Sarah Macmillan (1930-1970) daughter of HaroldMacmillan (1894-1986) #3735 who later became 1^st Earl of Stockton.

Other grandchildren from left to right are: Peter Baillie (1927-2017) a major in the Life Guards; Anne Cavendish who later became Lady Anne Tree (1927-2010) Philanthropist and prison rights activist; John Cobbold (1927-1983) #575 brewer and chairman of Ipswich Town Football Club; Elizabeth Cavendish (1926-2018) Lady in Waiting to Princess Margaret 1951 to 2002; Catherine Macmillan (1926-1991), Boroness Amery of Lustleigh; Judith Baillie (born 1925) who served in the ATS 1944-1947 and was granted the rank of a Baron’s daughter; John Stuart, about whom we know nothing; Michael Bailee (1924-2012), 3^rd Baron Burton; David Stuart, probably a brother of John, about whom we also know nothing: Carol Macmillan (1923-2016) who as Carol Faber disliked politics and worked for the National Blind Children’s Society; Jean Cobbold (1921-2001) #573 who married Roger Paul a director of R & W Paul, Millers; Pamela Cobbold (1920-1994) #570 who married Maj. Gen. Hope-Johnstone (1914-1993) #571 and who was the mother of Philip Hope-Cobbold (1943-2020) #577 of Glemham Hall; Maurice Macmillan (1921-1984), son of Harold Macmillan; Andrew Cavendish (1920-2004) #9503 11^th Duke of Devonshire; Arbell Mackintosh, for a while the 30^th Chief of Clan Chatten until her marriage and finally Billy Cavendish (1917-1944) #9522 who was killed by a sniper in Belgium on 9^th September 1944.  Billy had married KathleenKennedy (1920-1948) #9523, a sister of US President John F Kennedy.  She died in a plane crash in France only 4 years after her husband.

There were more grandchildren, amongst whom was Patrick Cobbold (1934-1994) #576 who served in the Scots Guards and as ADC to the Governor of the Bahamas.

COBBOLDS, First, last and in the midst.                                              March 2022

The East Anglian Daily Times recently published an article: THE TOP TEN TREASURES OF SUFFOLK.  First on the list was Great Beer which cited, unsurprisingly, Tolly Cobbold, seeing that the family brewed fine ales for 266 years across 9 generations.  Sadly, it is now 20 years since production ceased at the Cliff Brewery.  This was followed by George Orwell (Animal Farm), Sutton Hoo (Anglo-Saxon ship), Suffolk Punch (popular workhorse), Hovercraft (designed by Sir Christopher Cockerell), Dot Cotton (played by June Brown in EastEnders), Ed Sheeran (who, like our prime minister seems to be unwilling to brush his hair), Radar (with Arnold Wilkins pioneering), Voldemort (played by Ralph Fiennes), and last, Ipswich Town Football Club.  The Blues, as they are known locally are best known across the continent, says the paper, for winning the UEFA Cup in 1981 under the leadership of Bobby (later Sir Bobby) Robson. Football legend Sir Bobby got his break in management in 1969 and went on to take charge of England, Barcelona and Newcastle United, among other teams.  What it doesn’t say is that ITFC also won the FA Cup in 1978 and that Sir Bobby’s break was given him by John Cobbold (1927-1983) #575 who as Chairman appointed him.

Our in the midst family member is Stella Cobbold (1882-1918) #348 who is included in SUFFOLK MAGAZINE’S 40 FANTASTIC FEMALES.  Along with Charlotte Ridley and Mabel Pretty, ‘The Ladies of Ipswich’ are cited as this philanthropic trio – founding members of the British Red Cross Suffolk Branch – banded together during World War 1 to form what would become a countrywide network of hospital supply depots.  Their shipments of hundreds of thousands of items of clothing and medical equipment to Red Cross Hospitals and front lines all over the world saved countless lives.

Sadly, Stella died of World War One Flu in December 1918 aged only 36.  She never lived to see her son ennobled as 1^st Baron Cobbold of Knebworth (1904-1987) #490.

James Dempsey writes:  I can unhesitatingly state that Uncle Ralph [Ralph Hamilton Cobbold (1906-1987) #454] was without question the most wonderful man I have ever met in my life.  The Belgian lady who ran the incomparable ‘Orford Oysterage’ [Suffolk] would whoop with joy when we all arrived for a blow-out seafood lunch.  He really was the essence of old-world charm.  He listened intently to everything you said.  He made you feel important.  He was also rather naughty, as all the best people are.  His limericks and jokes were wonderfully told in a way that even the starchiest matron would at least smile if not titter.

There is a story from the war that sums up this beloved man and to tell it we must rejoin Geoff [the Saboteur] who, having been spirited out of Greece had finally reached England’s shores by way of Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Cairo, and no doubt a girl or two in each city.  He soon landed a job at SHAEF rounding up non-existent die- hard Nazi fanatics throughout freshly liberated France.  He decided to call on his old friend Jean, Prince de Chimay who still ran the venerable Grand Champagne House, Veuve Clicquot.  In 1940, the Nazis decreed that the entire production should henceforth be reserved for the Wehrmacht and graciously exempted Chimay and all those involved from deportation or worse.

On arrival, the Prince informed Geoff that he was only the second Englishman to call.  “The first left only about an hour ago – he was a friend of mine, Ralph Cobbold.  I wonder if perhaps you know him?”  Ralph had pipped Geoff to the post and had just driven off with a 3-ton lorry load of Champers for the Coldstream Guards.  Each bottle hidden for the duration behind a false wall in the labyrinthine cellars and each labelled ‘Reserved for the Allied Armies of Liberation’.

When I first met Ralph, he was MD of Justerini & Brooks, the grand old wine merchants that ended being gobbled up by Grand Metropolitan.  We were taken to lunch at Hatchetts and in these surroundings he really was in his element.  He later told me how he and a fellow director created J&B Rare on the back of a menu over a lengthy and no doubt boozy lunch.  Grand Met pounced when his creation became the biggest selling Scotch in the USA.

It was time to retire.  Grand Met generously allowed him to buy as much stock as he wanted at cost.  The figure was so colossal I could scarcely believe it to be true.  Two years later I was invited to stay for the weekend.  You could hardly move for the cases of hooch.  Latour jostled with Smirnoff.  It is the only time in my life that I have slept inches away from case after case of first growth clarets.  Dear, happy man, he died a long time after every drop had been drunk.

Ralph loved Kenya and as I knew it was easy for me to bond with him.  I am sorry now that we did not talk more about Herman Eckstein, my maternal grandfather.  The two of them were stepbrothers.  One sultry August evening, Ralph and I decided to go and fish the Long Pool at Inverie at Knoydart.  The dreaded midges hung like hot air balloons above our net-shrouded heads as we cast across the little river.  He turned to me and said, “I am only going to give you one bit of advice and this is it.  Treat everyone you meet in exactly the same way whether they be the Monarch or the dustman.  Everyone has their own story to tell and it is your job to encourage the telling.  Be like the wise old owl who sat in an oak, the more he heard the less he spoke; The less he spoke, the more he heard; Why aren’t we all like that wise old bird?”

I have done my best to live up to this sage advice.  When he died, a memorial service was held for him in the Guards Chapel on the Mall.  Many of the high and mighty attended.  At least three former Prime Ministers were among the vast crowd and one gave an address.  When I looked around, it was as if the yeoman heart of England had come to pay their last respects.  Butchers, bakers and candlestick makers jostled with the nobility of the nation.  I don’t think there was a dry eye to be seen.

NB  Numbers shown thus #1111 indicate the bearer’s position on the web family tree.MY FAB FIVE: 5 The Wine Merchant