David Cobbold #9809 on the family tree, an ex Chief Inspector in the Suffolk Constabulary has twice served as Chairman of Belstead Parish Council. Recently he has been instrumental in clearance of the churchyard at St Mary’s Belstead. Lost in the undergrowth and brambles volunteers discovered the grave of Stella Cobbold (1882-1918) #348 whose life and very happy marriage were cruelly cut short.
Stella was the first child and elder daughter of Dr Charles Hamilton Hone Cameron and Mary Louisa Savile Shepherd. Through her father Stella was a great niece of Peter Robert Burrell, 4th Baron Gwydyr of Stoke Park, Ipswich. The barony passed to her 2nd cousin but became extinct in 1915 as there was no male heir.
In 1903 Stella, who had been living at Stoke Park, entered what was by all accounts a match made in Heaven. At St Mary Stoke Church, Ipswich on 1st October she married Clement John Fromanteel Cobbold eldest son of the late Nathanael Fromanteel Cobbold and grandson of John Chevallier Cobbold at what was unquestionably a spectacular ceremony. In less than a year Stella’s only child was born, Cameron (known as Kim), who later, unknown to his mother, was to become Governor of the Bank of England and 1st Baron Cobbold. War was declared while her son was still at school and she threw herself wholeheartedly into the support of our troops.
In 1918 Stella died suddenly during the 1st World War flu pandemic. A correspondent wrote in The Times:
“MRS COBBOLD
Military hospitals owe so much to the work of war hospital supply depots that I would pay a last tribute to Stella Willoughby Savile Cobbold, who died at Boston after a short illness on December 2nd. Mrs Cobbold inaugurated the first of such organizations at Ipswich on August 7th 1914, and within a week had contrived to get a large number of drugs and dressings to the front. We realize what a boon this was in that terrible time. This example was speedily followed in other places, and many of the largest organizations throughout the country owe their inspiration to meetings addressed by Mrs Cobbold. She never refused her help or admitted the existence of any difficulty of transport or otherwise that could not be overcome. Owing to family reasons connected with the war Mrs Cobbold was latterly obliged to take a smaller share in public work”.
Her newly discovered grave at St Mary’s Belstead, the last to be uncovered, is on the north side behind the large tomb of Lord Gwydyr.
