Category: cobbwebs-news-and-views

Those who have taken battlefield tours will know that they are profoundly moving; never more so than first time.  This, plus the Armistice Day Commemoration at the Menin Gate in Ypres (Wipers, as the troops knew it!) left me breathless.  That they kept their sense of humour and did their duty in rat-infested trenches standing deep in mud with the temperature below zero beggars belief.  Such was the British Tommy!

In remembrance of those who did not return, and in the hope that such events will never, ever, be repeated, I feel muted happiness for making the trip; thinking particularly of our own, it is the sort of thing that a family history trust should do.

I travelled with Leger Silver Service (excellent value and organisation throughout) and our tour guide was their head man, Paul Reed, an acknowledged expert WWI historian with five books and a number of TV appearances to his name.  His contribution simply could not have been improved upon; it was exemplary.  We visited the ‘Aristocrats Cemetery’ at Zillebeke, the Passchendale Museum, the Hooge Crater, Hill 60, Tyne Cot and Essex farm; the last being the site of the field dressing station where, in May 1915, the Canadian doctor, John McCrae wrote the immortal In Flanders Fields.

With permission from the Last Post Association (who also organise the daily 8.0pm sounding) I joined the Veterans’ Parade and behind a tall and very efficient Wren and in front of a Captain in the Royal Marines, who helpfully kept us in step, marched from the Market Square up to the Menin Gate itself for the 11.00am silence after which we handed over our wreaths.  The dedication on the Trust’s wreath has already been published so I will not repeat it, but I do have a little tailpiece.

Added to my breathless admiration was a touch of personal pride.  It was my cousin, Field Marshal Plumer (arguably one of the better WWI commanders) who dedicated the Menin Gate at 11.00am on 24^th July 1927.  In an emotional speech (learned by heart) he spoke of the grief of those who had no known grave at which to mourn and expressed the hope that the Menin Gate memorial would lighten their burden; an idea encapsulated in his now famous words “He is not missing.  He is here.” 

Anthony Cobbold
November 2013

Note:  I was privileged to wear, by kind permission of his son, Richard, the medals of Lt. Cdr. Alistair Philip Cobbold RNVR (1907-1971) (#472 in the family tree) who was mentioned in despatches for his part in the Madagascar landing in 1942.

In a September Cobbweb I advised that I would be attending the Armistice Day Commemoration at the Menin Gate in Ypres on Monday 11^th November this year.

Permission has been granted for me to lay a wreath on behalf of The Cobbold Family History Trust.  The dedication on the wreath is shown below, but a word of explanation is necessary.  A while back it was discovered that the names of 10 men of Framlingham, Suffolk had been inadvertently left off the local war memorial.  A good friend of the Trust has worked hard to research them and their names are included as our small contribution to overcoming the original omission.

COMMEMORATED BY THIS WREATH ARE:

35 Cobbolds who died in WWI, who are recorded in ‘King & Country’ on the family website at www.cobboldfht.com

6 Cobbold family members recorded on the family tree, who died in WWI:

Richard Charles Graves-Sawle  2^nd November 1914
William Archie Arbuthnot Middleton  25^th April 1915
Reginald Fitzroy (Fritz) Talbot  27^th August 1916
Noel Roland Abbey  12^th April 1918
Geoffrey Foster Griffith  26^th September 1917
Geoffrey Percy Robert Toynbee  November 1914

10 Men of Framlingham, Suffolk who are recorded on the Menin Gate but who hitherto have been unrecognised in their home parish:

Cecil Henry Ashford  9^th October 1915
Walter Catchpole  25^th May 1915
William Chilvers  31^st July 1917
Charles H Clow  31^st July 1917
Ernest J Creasey  15^th November 1914

George Fuller  5^th May 1915
Christopher E Gibbons  22^nd January 1916
William Glasson  1^st November 1914
Walter J Lazell  19^th January 1916
Walter George Mann  12^th August 1917

13 Cobbolds who died in WWII, who are recorded in ‘King & Country’ on the family website at www.cobboldfht.com

This wreath is laid in gratitude by The Cobbold Family History Trust

11^th November 2013

In October 2008 (Features Archive) we wrote about the arms of Elizabeth Wilkinson, #57 in the tree, first wife of John Cobbold (1745-1835).  Studious observers will know that she married him in 1773 and died in 1790 having given him 15 children in her 17 years of married life!

The Trust is delighted to report that an original copy of the Wilkinson Arms has been given by the ever-thoughtful Dr John Blatchly.  The Trust has often previously been the recipient of his kindness and wisdom to which it now adds gratitude.

This illustration, measuring just 5” x 4” was copied by Mrs Bampton née Charlotte Cobbold (1817-1914) #141, Elizabeth’s granddaughter who gave it to her nephew, Francis Alfred Cobbold (1852-1915) #209.  Interestingly Charlotte seems to have been something of an artist as the Trust has recently heard of some plates which she decorated with illustrations of flowers and fishes.  She married the Reverend John Black Bampton (1818-1888) who was Domestic Chaplain to Lord Wynford at St. Clement’s, Ipswich in 1842 and they had a son, Henry in 1843 about whom we know nothing.

Field of Remembrance

Once again the Trust has made a donation to The Royal British Legion and will have a cross commemorating the 48 Cobbolds who died in two World Wars planted in the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey.  The official opening will take place at 11am on Thursday 7^th November and the Field will be open from 12 noon that day and from 9am to 4pm daily until Sunday 17^th November.

Permission has been granted for the Keeper to lay a wreath at the Menin Gate in Ypres on 11^th November and a further donation was made to The Royal British Legion when the wreath was ordered.

Friends of Wortham Church

A new website has been created for the FOWC at www.friendsofworthamchurch.weebly.com which is strongly recommended for all who want to support the church where Richard Cobbold was Rector for 52 years.  The site has excellent photos of the new window on which we have reported previously.  There is also an excellent new guide book available via the website at just £3.50.  A link has been installed from this site.

Thanks are extended to….

Lady Kenya Tatton-Brown #1490, for the loan of a photo album compiled from 1911 by Adela Mary Evelyn Monins (1893-1986) #1168 in the tree, later Viscountess Broome.

Virginia Booth-Jones #966 for 2 books, some papers and photographs relating to Sir Harry Parkes #894 and some of his descendents.

Robyn and Penelope Sharpe for advice on a book having a chapter devoted to Richard Cobbold and the Lyrebird sent back to England by Margaret Catchpole.

A Persevering Dog.

My darling Ghill, so shrewd and deft,
You follow at your mother’s heel,
Just as Achates never left
His master’s side thro’ friendly zeal.
The hall and kitchen, Ghill, you range,
You’re not a thing of tense and mood,
Unlike a woman ne’er you change,
Your cry is “Food, more food, more food”.
You, prince of beggars, live to eat
And crave for countless bones to gnaw,
You stand and beg for plates of meat,
And when you’ve finished, ask for more.
And when you’ve finished, ask for more.

Those who have read the biographical notes on Sir Harry Parkes (1828-1885) #849 in the tree will know that he narrowly escaped execution in Beijing in 1859.  Trade negotiations were conducted rather differently in those days!  It was during a trip to the Yangtze ports in 1865 that he heard he had been appointed Queen Victoria’s Consul General in Japan.  Within months of taking up his appointment his support for the Liberal Party of Japan upset the party’s opponents and there followed a series of assassination attempts.  We reproduce below a contemporary account by a Japanese official of one such event and its sequel.

On 23^rd of March 1867, when Mr. Harry Parkes, then the Minister to Japan for Great Britain proceeded to the Imperial Palace in Kyoto for an audience to be given by the Emperor, he was assaulted by two rioters on his way.  In these times it was customary that some government guardians were given to foreign ministers when they went out and on this occasion, the late Mr. Nakai Kȏzȏ and the late Mr.Gotȏ Shȏjirȏ who were made high officials afterwards, happened to be members of the guardians who followed the British Minister that day.  As soon as they found that the rioters were going to assault the Minister they run to them at once and after a fighting one of the rioters was arrested and the other was cut down by Mr. Nakai with his sword.  The Minister escaped safely and had an audience with the Emperor as expected.  The name of the arrested rioter is Saegusa and that of the killed is Hayashida. .  They both seem to have been fanatical partisan of the anti-foreign party of those days.

The British Government rewarded Mr. Nakai’s courage with a sword decorated in western style which was delivered to him with the following covering letter:

British Legation, Yokohama,
November 6^th 1868

Sir,

Her Majesty’s Government are very desirous to mark the high sense which they entertain of the praiseworthy and courageous conduct which you displayed on the occasion of the attack made upon my party when I was proceeding to an audience of the Mikado on the 23^rd March last, and they have accordingly instructed me to present to you a sword which they have caused to be prepared in commemoration of your distinguished behaviour.

It naturally affords me very great satisfaction to be charged with the duty of delivering to you this testimonial, and presenting it to you I beg to add the expression of my fervent wish for your enjoyment of a long and prosperous career, which I am satisfied will be marked by entire devotion to the service of your Sovereign and country.
I have honour to be, Sir,
Your obedient humble servant,

Harry Parkes

We all know that Rev Richard Cobbold (1797-1877) #106 in the tree, was economical with the truth about Margaret Catchpole’s life in that he dramatized it when subsequent study has shown that none was necessary.  A book entitled The Romance of the Lyrebird by Alec H. Chisholme, published in 1960, has been drawn to our attention by our good friends in Australia, Robyn and Penelope Sharpe and our library copy has just arrived from down under.

Chapter 7, The Catchpole-Cobbold Fantasy tells us that Richard also hugely, and again quite unnecessarily, embellished his description of this fine creature, two specimens of which Margaret sent home to Richard’s mother, Elizabeth.  After her death these were presented to the Museum in Ipswich by Richard’s eldest brother, Robert Knipe Cobbold (1792-1859) #100.

Ironically, without his enhancements the story might never have achieved the notoriety which ensured its survival!  An error of judgement or inadvertent good marketing?

If so read on…..

My readers of longer standing will recall that on Sunday 11^th November 2007 a party of 9 Cobbolds joined the national parade in Whitehall to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph commemorating the 48 Cobbolds who died in two World Wars.

Of the 35 Cobbolds who died in WWI (Link to ‘King and Country’) the majority fell on the Somme.  The Imperial (as it was then) War Graves Commission erected the Menin Gate Memorial at Ypres, Belgium, “in honour of the British Armies who stood at Ypres from 1914 to 1918, and of 56,000 of those of their dead who fell in the salient and who have no known grave”.

Every evening at exactly 8.0’clock, the police halt the traffic passing through the Menin Gate to allow buglers to play their simple but moving tribute to the memory of those who fought and died.  On Armistice Day each year there is a much larger ceremony including a veterans’ parade.

I am booked to attend the event this year on November 11^th and I have applied to the authorities to lay a wreath which will commemorate the 35 Cobbolds and in addition I propose to include the following members of our extended family:

Lt. Noel Roland Abbey, 4^th Bn. Grenadier Guards who died 12^th April 1918 aged 20

Capt. Geoffrey Foster Griffith, London Regt. (Queen Victoria’s Rifles) who died 26^th September 1917 aged 26

Capt. Geoffrey Percy Robert Toynbee, The Rifle Brigade who died 15^th November 1914 aged 29.

Requests for other family members to be included (preferably containing the above information) should reach me by mid-October please.

I have an additional reason for attendance.  The Menin Gate Memorial was unveiled and dedicated on Sunday 24^th of July, 1927 by Field-Marshal Lord Plumer who is my first cousin, albeit twice removed.  The Trust has the Order of Service used on that occasion by the Field-Marshal.

Anthony Cobbold
September 2013

Ghillie is lost and found,

So after all we’ve got you home,
Keen hunter, with your snow-white coat,
Last night we feared you’d never come,
We thought you dead, on whom we doat,
At seven o’clock you ran away
And sought the thickets with your friend,
And little leverets were your prey,
Who met a most untimely end.
For many hours you don’t return,
As you are caught within a snare,
We seek you long, for you we yearn,
But cannot find you anywhere.
We’re tortured sore, with worry mad,
Lest bullet mortal wound should give,
This morning we are bright and glad
To know, tho’ trapped, you’re still alive.
O loveliest dog, that e’er ‘s been seen,
And faithful too, our great delight,
My Ghill, restored to me you’ve been;
I had indeed an awful fright.

A Day’s Hunting.
For Hester’s spectacles to-day
I’ve hunted through and through the house;
Now, naughty Ghill, you’ve run away,
And pounced upon a wretched mouse,
Or frog may be; with Taff in tow
To deepest spinnies you will go,
(I know your ways) and seek a hare
And find him deep within his lair,
And some poor little partridge too
You’ll stalk; a lot I’ll pay for you,
Before you’ve done, or p’raps they’ll shoot
Or crush you with a heavy boot;
So all my hunting is not done
To-day, for I must straightway run,
And find my dog, where’er he be,
What miles I’ll go, ah wretched me!