15 Facts About James Cobban

James Cobban was the headmaster of Abingdon School from 1947 to 1970 and is largely credited with bringing the school from relative obscurity to national recognition in Britain.

James Cobban was granted a scholarship to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he read classics and had great success.

James Cobban received a double first in the Classical Tripos examinations, receiving the Thirwell Medal and Gladstone Prize and receiving marks second only to his contemporary Enoch Powell.

James Cobban continued his education at the University of Vienna in 1932, where he witnessed a Jewish student being chased by a gang of young Nazis wielding cudgels, an experience which James Cobban described in his memoir as "seared in my mind".

In 1933 James Cobban took a position teaching Latin and Greek at King Edward VI School, Southampton.

When that became a reality, James Cobban was assigned to help organise local governments in Germany on a democratic basis.

James Cobban briefly returned to Dulwich in 1946 before arriving at Abingdon School as Headmaster in 1947.

James Cobban married Lorna Marlow in 1942 and had four daughters and one son.

Lorna died of bronchiectasis in 1961, leaving James Cobban to raise his four daughters on his own, although his sister Katie later gave up her own career as an educator to assist in the children's care.

James Cobban was a lifelong member of the Church of England and in later life a prominent lay leader.

James Cobban served in the General Synod for fifteen years, and for three years served as its chairman, the highest position a layman can hold in the Church of England.

James Cobban preached and officiated in his retirement at a group of six parishes in Dorset from 1986 to 1997.

James Cobban moved to Steventon, then to Sherborne, and finally to sheltered housing run by one of his daughters in Yeovil.

James Cobban died at Tyndale Nursing Home, Yeovil, Somerset, on 19 April 1999, and his ashes were interred on 26 April in Trent churchyard, Somerset.

James Cobban received the Territorial Decoration for long service in the Territorial Army.