Category: cobbwebs-news-and-views

Peter Cobbold (#494 in the family tree) enjoyed Easter lunch with his family and died aged 91 at home the following day.

Born in Henley on Thames and educated at Dover College he learned to sail in the harbour at an early age which proved to be the foundation of a life-long love of that sport.  Running in tandem was life-long support for the RNLI but as told by his son, John at his Thanksgiving Service, he never disclosed whether he had need of their services.

Peter was commissioned into the King’s Royal Rifle Corps in WWII and served with distinction in 11 KRRC in Greece.  At the beginning of December 1944 the Greek Communist troops, ELAS marched on Athens to seize power and 11 KRRC were drawn into a civil war under most difficult conditions.  The urban battlefield, the risks of distinguishing friend from foe and the dirty tactics of ELAS made their task a particularly unpleasant one.  The battalion mounted a full-scale attack on Ardhittos Hill which led to the clearing of Athens and the end of the civil war.

Citation for Award of the Military Cross – Lt P F Cobbold KRRC

Lt Cobbold commanded a platoon which took part in the capture of Ardhittos Hill on the night of December 17^th / 18^th and afterwards held the forward post there.  Throughout the day his positions were subject to heavy machine gun and rifle fire, varying in intensity and coming from three directions, and later to accurate mortar fire.  Despite this he maintained his platoon in their position and provided vital information as to the movement of enemy troops.  During the early afternoon an obstinately pressed counter-attack made by superior numbers developed against his platoon positions.  The leading section put up a stubborn fight but was finally overcome.  Lt Cobbold withdrew the remainder of his platoon, already depleted by casualties to a new position and successfully reformed them to hold a still vital part of his company’s area.  This officer showed complete disregard of personal danger and his example encouraged his men.

Back in civvy street Peter joined Courtaulds to become a director of the Viscose Division where he was highly valued for his decisive style and forward looking attitudes to marketing.  He was a serious loss to the company when he decided to leave to become a farmer.

In retirement he and his wife made their home in Tenerife before returning to Northamptonshire where eventually some assistance was required.  As one of his carers wrote “The world has lost a true gentleman and I am so grateful for the time I spent with him”

Note:  Peter and his family have been generous supporters of the trust for which we are most grateful.  Anthony Cobbold.

As a tribute to Isabel Chevallier née Cobbold (#208 on the family tree) Aspall has decided to name its latest new Cyder brand

Isabel’s Berry

Isabel’s Berry is a light refreshing drink (3.8% by vol.) which includes redcurrant and raspberry juices.  It is perfect with fruits, salads, crumbles and summer puddings.

Isabel Amy Cobbold married John Barrington (JB) Trapnell Chevallier at Whitton Church, Ipswich in September 1897.  JB was himself a most successful man who won the heart of a warm and generous person.  Isabel, born and bred in Suffolk was deeply proud of her county and loved nothing better than tending her plants in the walled garden at Aspall Hall.

She was a great hostess and welcomed everyone into her home.  It seems fitting that she should be commemorated by a drink that sits happily at the centre of entertaining and hospitality.

Thanks are due to Mick Farrow for a DVD showing much of the Tolly Cobbold Brewery prior to its closure.  Mick was formerly a guide at the brewery and his DVD has been placed in the archive.

Thanks are also due to Nick Russell for a sketch by Ian Cobbold RN (#504 on the tree) and a poem by Margaret Cobbold (#385)

The Trust has also been given two books, a) The Thistle and The Jade, A Celebration of 150 years of Jardine Matheson & Co, edited by Maggie Keswick and b) Charles Dixon, The Golden Age of Marine Painting.

Acquisitions by the Trust this month have included 112 letters from members of the Chichele-Plowden family and a bundle of papers and letters from the Chandos-Pole family; a copy of Country Life containing a picture of Glemham Hall and 2 books, a) Notes on the Church and Parish of Rattlesden published 1900 (this copy given to Lucy Jervis White Jervis by Felix Thornley Cobbold) and b) A View of Felixstowe from the Bath by Dick Moffat which is the story of the Bath Hotel, burnt down by Suffragettes in 1914.

Thanks to Michael Cobbold (# 1849 in the family tree) and his family of California for the gift of a delightful miniature oil painting of the 2 English Setters owned by Arthur Thomas Cobbold (1815-1898).  Arthur (#138 in the family tree) was a great sportsman as well as being a brewer and an amateur cabinet maker.

Congratulations to Johno Cobbold (# 1009 in the family tree), the 22^nd Cobbold to go to Caius College, Cambridge but the first Caian Cobbold to get a Blue, in this case for Hockey in a varsity match won on 9^th March 2014.

2 Excellent websites have been added to our Links:

www.aspall.co.uk is the site for the Chevallier family’s award winning apple juice, cyder and vinegar business

www.ipswichhistoricchurchestrust.org.uk is the site for the fine work carried out by the Ipswich Historic Churches Trust who care for 5 Medieval churches including St Lawrence which boasts the earliest ring of bells in Christendom and St Clement, the burial place of Thomas Cobbold (1708-1767) #44 in the family tree, ‘Common Brewer’ who moved the brewery from Harwich to Ipswich

Alfred Leete (1882-1933) was a self-taught artist, illustrator and cartoonist.  He was also the creator of one of the world’s best known poster designs. The steely stare and demanding pointing finger of Lord Kitchener in Your Country Needs You is a design classic.

Kitchener (1850-1916) (#733 in the family tree) played a crucial role during WW1 as Secretary of State for War.  Traditionally it is believed that this poster was designed specifically for the purpose of recruiting millions of men for front line duty, and that it traded on Kitchener’s military prowess and popularity to do so.

However, the truth is somewhat different.  Your Country Needs You originated simply as a piece of artwork for the cover of London Opinion magazine which was a popular magazine for original articles, essays and reviews with tales, sketches and illustrations.  Following its first publication on September 5^th 1914 the editor was bombarded with requests for copies of the image so it was reproduced on fine art paper, suitable for framing and sold “post free for sixpence each.”

At the end of that month the image made its first appearance on a propaganda poster printed by the Victoria House Printing Co in London and in November it was used in a more elaborate and larger recruitment poster printed by David Allen adorned with national flags and giving rates of pay and allowances.  This is the only known recruitment poster to feature the words Your Country Needs You and Leete’s Kitchener image.

We show the London Opinion magazine cover, the David Allen poster and a contemporary saucy post card.

The assistance of The Secret History of the Propaganda Poster by James Taylor is acknowledged.

Lillie’s father, William Corbet Le Breton was a Jerseyman educated at Winchester and Pembroke and Exeter Colleges, Oxford who became Dean of Jersey.  Lillie (#1243 in the family tree) rated him one of the handsomest men in the world; vigorous, six foot and with majestic bearing and a luxuriant head of hair.  His piercing blue eyes, so familiar to the beautiful young members of his congregation were passed on to his daughter and striding around his parish in ecclesiastical gaiters he displayed a pair of calves to be envied.

Clearly he did not attract the epithet ‘the Dirty Dean’ for no reason and Lillie is said to have been denied one of her first loves because his blue eyes were no accident of chance!

Against this background the following Love Poem, believed to have originated in West Virginia about 1912 brings a smile to our lips.

Susie Lee done fell in love,
She planned to marry Joe.
She was so happy ‘bout it all
She told her Pappy so.
Pappy told her, “Susie gal,
You’ll have to find another.
I’d just as soon yo’ Ma don’t know,
But Joe is yo’ half brother.”
So Susie put aside her Joe
And planned to marry Will.
But after telling Pappy this,
He said, “There’s trouble still…
You can’t marry Will, my gal,
And please don’t tell your Mother,
But Will and Joe and several mo’
I know is yo’ half brother.”
But Mama knew and said, “My child,
Just do what makes you happy.
Marry Will or marry Joe,
You ain’t no kin to Pappy!”

Ipswich’s civic amenity society, established in 1960, flourishes and continues to attract new members at a healthy rate.  Readers will remember that it was the Ipswich Society who erected, on the Reg Driver Centre, a Blue Plaque commemorating the gift of Christchurch Mansion to the Borough by Felix Thornley Cobbold (1841-1909).

The Society has known of The Cobbold Family History Trust for some years and recently heard of our ‘Friends’ appeal.  With great generosity the Society decided to become Foundation Benefactors with a donation to the endowment fund of £500.

We reproduce below a page from the April issue of The Ipswich Society Newsletter (a most excellent publication, we highly recommend) which features the Trust’s letter of thanks with a classic Georgian illustration which is becoming increasingly familiar.

NOTE: to read Newletter extract view in PDF

Many readers will know that Bishop John Patteson, the Martyr of Melanesia was cruelly murdered.  Those readers will also know that Bishop John was the niece of Lucy Patteson (1800-1879), wife of John Chevallier Cobbold (1797-1882).  Readers will not be surprised to know that Bishop John has been chosen as one of the subjects for the Trust’s book, Cobbold & Kin, Life Stories from an East Anglian Family due out in October this year.

Briefly, John was born in London in 1827, the son of a judge who had married the niece of the poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and received his schooling at Eton.  Whilst there he went to Windsor Parish Church to hear Bishop Selwyn preach before he set out to be the first Bishop of New Zealand.  Hugely impressed by what he heard, he resolved that one day he too would work in New Zealand.  Following graduation from Balliol College, Oxford he travelled in Europe learning German, Arabic and Hebrew and was ordained in Exeter Cathedral in 1853, serving his curacy in his mother’s home town of Ottery St Mary in Devon.

Only a few years ago the Brothers and Sister of the Melanesian Mission visited Devon and a good deal of bonding took place amongst Bishop Patteson’s present day devotees from both hemispheres.  The Trust was given a leaflet bearing a picture of  St. Barnaba’s  Patteson Memorial Chapel on Norfolk Island and desirous of using that picture in the book we wrote for permission which was kindly given by the Trustees and Parish Council.  News came to us in an email from (Mary and) Bernie Christian-Bailey, part of which I reproduce below.  Beautiful little vignettes of life like this are the reward of the family historian and deserve to be shared.

My great grandfather George Bailey came to Norfolk Island from Chudleigh in Devon, England (via New Zealand) to work in the Melanesian Mission as a blacksmith.  He was also in charge of the music, and installed the beautiful Willis organ that was donated by Patteson’s cousin the Victorian novelist Charlotte Yonge.  About 6 years ago, we acquired the Bishop’s desk, which was made here on Norfolk Island for him from local timbers.  After his death, it was sent back to England to Charlotte Yonge, who, we understand, used it until her death.  We had the opportunity to bid for the desk at an auction in Itchingstoke, Hampshire (via telephone) and acquired it,and it now has pride of place in the “Patteson Room” in our Parish Centre.

In my own home, we have the Bishop’s dining chairs, also made locally we believe (but maybe in New Zealand).  My grandfather had the opportunity to purchase goods from the Mission when it relocated from Norfolk Island in 1920.  Our home is named “Devon” because of the historic association, and two of our sons, who live behind us and next door, call their homes “Devon Cottage” and “Devonside”.  We still worship at the Patteson Memorial Chapel every Sunday morning.

Charlotte Mary Yonge (1823-1901) was the Bishop’s biographer: ‘Life of John Coleridge Patteson’ published by Macmillan, 1874

Cobbold & Kin, Life Stories from an East Anglian Family

The Trust’s book by Clive Hodges has gone to the publishers which is a great relief all round; the work involved has been enormous.  We decided on ‘Life Stories’ rather than ‘Biographies’ but it may yet be changed again by the publishers.  It will be launched in October (£25 + postage) so please start saving your pennies!

Talks

To confirm that the Trust is going about its business vigorously the Keeper has accepted 2 speaking engagements in Ipswich this year.

1.  Ipswich branch of the Suffolk Family History Society at Red Cross Hall, Chevallier St. at 7.30 pm on Thursday 17^th April, and

2.  Ipswich Arts Association at Museum Street Methodist Church (entrance in Black Horse Lane) at 1.0 pm on 10^th July.

Thanks…

are due to the donors for the following gifts to the Trust archive…

to Maj. Philip Hope-Cobbold for a Glemham Hall Estate silver Millennium Medal, the estate having been bought by the family in 1923,
to Stuart Wolfendale for a copy of his book ‘Imperial to International’ a history of St. John’s Cathedral, Hong Kong where Rowland Francis Cobbold (1857-1945) was Senior Chaplain from 1892 to 1902,
to Isobel Hutchison who is a painter for a wealth of family tree information and no less than 20 pictures for the tree,
to Dorothy Maxwell, again for family tree information on the Cooke-Yarboroughs whose name is (as often happens) the result of an inheritance-related marriage.  She relates a nice little anecdote in which the family lost all its money as a result of 18^th century gambling debts and to this day a hand of cards without court cards is known as a ‘Yarborough.’

News from Sylvia Stoltz

In February last year, under the heading ‘I’ve Still Got my Marbles’ I reported on our nonagenarian correspondent in Australia.  In confirmation that she is still at it, we hear that she has just won 2^nd prize in a ‘True Wartime Experience’ competition.  The event has been running for 51 years and encourages Veterans to write about their experiences.  Sylvia is very knowledgeable on the history of Chemical Warfare in Australia and her recent contribution is published in BRAVO! Recollections and Reflections of the Veteran Community by the Australian Government.  Congratulations, Sylvia from us all.

The famous griffins on the gate pillars at the courtyard entrance to Knebworth House have been recreated by sculptors Alastair Rennie and Stephen Petiffer.

Affectionately known to the Lytton Cobbolds as Mr & Mrs Clarence (they are distinctly male and female) the two fantasy monsters have stood guardians to this great neo-gothic house for many a year but sadly the originals had deteriorated  so badly that they became almost indistinguishable.

Further mythical beasts including bats, gargoyles and dinosaurs, elsewhere await the visitor when the house and park re-open on 22^nd March.

See www.knebworthhouse.com for details for details