Lt Col Sir John Cockburn awarded the Distinguished Service Order.

 19th November 1918 - ON THIS DAY IN ROYAL WELCH HISTORY

Lt Col Sir John Cockburn awarded the Distinguished Service Order.

Cockburn was commissioned into the RWF 23 December 1893. He was attached to the West African Frontier Force before taking part in the Boer War earning the Queen’s South Africa medal with five bars for separate engagements.

He was a temporary Lt Col commanding the 1st Battalion, Nigerian Regiment during the Cameroon Campaign under Brig-Gen Dobell (late RWF). During this time he received a Royal Human Society Silver Medal for rescuing a drowning sailor.

On competition of the West Africa campaign he transferred to the Western Front commanding 2 and 17 RWF. Evident from his portrait he was severely wounded in September 1916 by a shell that exploded on the parapet. He was again wounded in 1918, having destroyed a MG and its crew with his runner, refusing to be evacuated until he had briefed his Brigadier on the situation.

During the Second World War “Cockie” as he was known in the Regiment volunteered to command the Home Guard in Ross-on-Wye.

He died on 2 May 1949 having suffered many years of pain from his wounds. It is the mark of this hugely courageous officer that he bore his pain with great dignity and fortitude.

His full biography can be seen below:

COCKBURN, John Brydges

Born on 23 December 1870 at Pennoxstone Court, King’s Caple, Herefordshire, he was the fourth and youngest son of Sir Edward Cludde Cockburn, 8th Baronet of that Ilk, JP, DL and High Sheriff of Herefordshire in 1866, formerly captain 11th Hussars, and his wife Mary Anne Frances, daughter of Robert Kerr Elliot (q.v.) of Harwood and Clifton Park, Roxburghshire. He was educated at Cheltenham College.

He was commissioned 2nd lieutenant 4th (Militia) Battalion KSLI on 11 February 1891 and was granted a regular commission RWF on 23 December 1893. Lieutenant on 8 May 1896, captain on 6 October 1900 and major on 12 May 1912. He was employed with the West African Frontier Force serving in the Munshi expedition in 1900, received the medal and was mentioned in despatches. He took part in the South African War 1901–1902 and received the Queen’s medal with five clasps. In 1906 he was in West Africa again and took part in the action against the Sokoto rebels and received the medal and clasp.

A temporary lieutenant-colonel from 16 March 1913 to 29 June 1916 he commanded the 1st Battalion Nigeria Regiment taking part in the campaign in the Cameroons under the (then) Brigadier-General C. M. Dobell (q.v.), and his services were recognised, twice mentioned in despatches, decorated with the French Legion of Honour and granted the brevet rank of lieutenant-colonel. He also received the Silver medal of the Royal Humane Society for his gallantry in jumping into the Cameroon River which was infested with crocodiles and in high flood in an attempt to save a bluejacket of HMS Cumberland who had fallen overboard.

He commanded 17 RWF from July 1916 to August 1917 and from 23 February 1918 to 5 July 1918 and 2 RWF from 21 July 1918 to 27 August 1918 and from 26 November 1918 to 27 December 1918, during which period he was awarded the DSO (LG 11.1.19), twice mentioned in despatches and twice severely wounded. He was a contributor to The War The Infantry Knew – see the index.

A substantive lieutenant-colonel on 31 January 1919, he was in command of 1 RWF when it re-formed at Oswestry and he sailed with the battalion to India. Ill-health, however, compelled him to relinquish his command and he retired on 10 February 1923.

He married, on 9 April 1919, Isabel Hunter, youngest daughter of James McQueen of Crofts, Kirkcudbright, Scotland, with whom he had a son and a daughter. He succeeded his brother, as 11th Baronet of that Ilk, in 1947.

He lived at Merrivale Place, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, and died there on 2 May 1949.

Obituary

The Times 4 May 1949

Y Ddraig Goch Winter 1949, pages 2, 9

Kirby update by RJMS - May 2011 Edn

Who Was Who, Vol. IV

References

Langley, David, Duty Done – 2nd Battalion The Royal Welch Fusiliers in the Great War,

RWF Museum, Caernarfon, 2001, pages 87–8

Anon [Captain J.C. Dunn RAMC], The War The Infantry Knew, P.S. King & Son, 1938.

Republished, with an introduction by Keith Simpson, Jane's, 1987