Alexander Cobbe
| Sir Alexander Cobbe | |
|---|---|
Lieutenant General Sir Alexander Cobbe in Iraq, late 1917
|
|
| Born |
6 June 1870 Naini Tal, British India |
| Died | 29 June 1931 (aged 61) |
| Buried at | Sharnbrook, Bedfordshire |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service/branch |
British Army (1889–94) British Indian Army (1894–31) |
| Years of service | 1889–1931 |
| Rank | General |
| Commands held |
Northern Command, India III Indian Corps 1st (Central Africa) Battalion, King's African Rifles Central Africa Regiment |
| Battles/wars |
Chitral Expedition War of the Golden Stool Somaliland Campaign First World War |
| Awards |
Victoria Cross Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India Distinguished Service Order Mentioned in Despatches (17) Commander of the Legion of Honour (France) Commander of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (Italy) |
General Sir Alexander Stanhope Cobbe VC, GCB, KCSI, DSO (6 June 1870 – 29 June 1931) was a senior British Indian Army officer and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
Alexander Stanhope Cobbe was born on 5 June 1870 in Naini Tal, Bengal Presidency, India, the third child and second son of Lieutenant General Sir Alexander Hugh Cobbe and Emily Barbara Cobbe, née Jones. Through his father's family he was descended from Charles Cobbe (1686–1765), archbishop of Dublin; his grandmother, the wife of Colonel Thomas Cobbe, was Nuzzeer Begum Khan, thereby making Alexander a distinguished Anglo-Indian. Alexander had two sisters and four brothers; of the latter two became lieutenant colonels in the British Army and one a captain in the Royal Navy. In 1881 he was a pupil at Eagle House School, Wimbledon. He went on to Wellington College and then followed his elder brother Henry Hercules Cobbe to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, from where he passed out in 1889. At the age of 19 he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the South Wales Borderers.
The highlights of Cobbe's military career can be tracked by the regular records of his promotions and deeds published in the London Gazette. In March 1892 he was promoted to lieutenant and later in the same year he was seconded to the Indian Army Staff Corps. This secondment led to his permanent transfer from the South Wales Borderers in 1894. The purpose of the Indian Staff Corps was not only to provide officers for headquarters' staff but, far more broadly, for the native Indian regiments, the army departments and also for civil and political appointments for which Indian Army officers might be eligible. In 1903, in order to avoid confusion, the designation 'Indian Staff Corps' as applied to officers on regimental duty was withdrawn and replaced by the more appropriate term 'Indian Army', which is how Cobbe was referred to in all later Gazette entries. In India in 1895 Cobbe gained his first medal, the India Medal (1895–1902), with the clasp “Relief of Chitral”. This campaign was one of the many on the Northwest Frontier to quell unrest against British rule.
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