Lieutenant-General Alexander Stanhope Cobbe VC GCB KCSI DSO



On 6th Oct 1902 at Erego, Somaliland, when some of the companies had retired, Lieut-Col Cobbe was left by himself with a Maxim gun. Without assistance he brought in the gun and used it to good effect at a critical time in the fighting. He then went out under heavy fire from the enemy and succeeded in bringing in a wounded orderly. The photo shows him in the dress uniform of the 32nd Sikh Pioneers.

1870 Born in Naini Tal, India on 5th June
1889 Commissioned from Sandhurst into the South Wales Borderers
1894 Transferred to the Indian Army
1895 Relief of Chitral
1898 Service in Central and East Africa
1899 Oct. 2nd in Command of British Central Africa Rifles
1900 Commanding Officer of Central Africa Rifles
1900 Ashanti Wars - Wounded in Relief of Kumasi
1901 Awarded DSO
1902 Lt-Col 1st Battalion Kings African Rifles
1902 Fighting in Somaliland. Won the Victoria Cross
1905 Command of 32nd Sikh Pioneers
1907 On the Indian Staff
1912 ADC to the King
1914 Service in the First World War
1915 Awarded CB on recommendation of FM French
1916 Promotion to Major-General
1917 Service with distinction in Mesopotamia
1919 Promotion to Lieutenant-General
1922 Colonel of the South Wales Borderers from 27th Feb 1922 to 29th Jun 1931
1928 Appointed KCB
1930 ADC General to the King
1930 Colonel of the Sikh Pioneers
1931 Died on 27th June at Sharnbrook, Bedford



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by Stephen Luscombe