#448, John Murray (Ivan) COBBOLD

John Murray (Ivan) was born at Holywells on 28th January 1897. His nurse nicknamed him 'Ivan the Terrible' and the name stuck. His mother spoke Russian and John in that language is 'Ivan' which may explain why it was allowed to stick. He was educated at Ipswich School and Eton where he won a place in the 1st cricket XI and was Keeper of Rackets and would have gone on to Trinity College, Cambridge but for the outbreak of war.

He joined the 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards on 3rd September 1915 and was in France as a Captain the following year. He sustained a gun-shot wound in 1917 and spent some recovery time back home before returning to fight in France. After the armistice he took up work in the family brewing business, becoming Chairman after his father's death in 1929.

On 30th April 1919, in the Guards' Chapel in London he married Lady Blanche Katherine Cavendish, 2nd daughter of the 9th Duke of Devonshire. They had met in Canada whilst Blanche's father was Governor General. As well as having a wonderfully good eye for a ball Ivan was a great fisherman and deemed one of the best shots in the country. He was due to attend a shooting party at Sandringham with a friend, Sir Samuel Hill-Wood the Chairman of Arsenal Football Club but the shoot was cancelled and they went to Highbury instead. Ivan was impressed and came away determined that Ipswich Town should turn professional. On 1st May 1936 after much debate at a meeting in the Town Hall it was agreed; and the Club played 2 seasons in the Southern League before joining the Football League for the 1938/39 season.

In 1942 Ivan, by then a Colonel, became liaison officer at the HQ of European Theatre of Operations for the Allied Expeditionary Force commanded by Dwight D Eisenhower and was working closely with General Bedell Smith, Eisenhower's Chief of Staff. Ivan was both a longtime customer and a personal friend of Tom Purdey (gun maker) which made it possible for Purdey's long room to be used for planning the D-Day landings. Bidell Smith had been invited by Ivan to attend a special service in the Guards' Chapel on Sunday 18th June 1944 to give thanks for the success of the Normandy Landings but pressure of work prevented him doing so. The service was taken by the Bishop of Maidstone and a lesson had just been read by Lord Hay when the familiar droning of a V1 was heard; gradually it became a roar and suddenly the engine stopped and it exploded on the chapel; the roof and walls collapsed and buried the occupants under 10 foot of rubble. Ivan was one of over 100 who died.

Help of Ipswich War Memorial is appreciated

The following is extracted from British Aristocracy Losses in WWII

Lieutenant Colonel JOHN MURRAY COBBOLD 110300, Scots Guards who died age 47 on 18 June 1944?Son of John Dupuis Cobbold, D.L., and of Lady Evelyn Cobbold (nee Murray); husband of Lady Blanche Cobbold (nee Cavendish). of Glemham Hall, Suffolk. D.L., J.P., Sherriff of Suffolk.?
Remembered with honour GOLDERS GREEN CREMATORIUM
Grave/Memorial Reference: Panel 1.
CWGC :: Casualty Details

From The Scots Guards, Erskine, pg 58:

It was during Colonel Wynne Finch's term of command that the Regimental Headquarters suffered its greatest blow. At a quarter past eleven on the morning of Sunday 18th June 1944 a jet-propelled flying bomb (the German V.1) dived onto the Guards Chapel when it was full of worshippers. By great good fortune the congregation on the Sunday was the smallest it had been for many months, but nevertheless the Regiment suffered sad losses. Lieutenant-Colonel J.M. Cobbold, Lieutenant H.W. Dods, Second-Lieutenant J.A.G. Duberly and two other ranks were among those killed.

From information compiled by Jan Gore:
Guards Chapel

Lieutenant Colonel John Murray Cobbold, service number 110300, Scots Guards, aged 47. Son of John Dupuis Cobbold, D.L., and of Lady Evelyn Cobbold (nee Murray); husband of Lady Blanche Cobbold (nee Cavendish). of Glemham Hall, Suffolk. D.L., J.P., Sherriff of Suffolk. He was born in the March quarter of 1897 at Ipswich, and was always known as Ivan, a nickname given him by his nurse.

He married Lady Blanche Cavendish, second daughter of the Duke of Devonshire, in the Guards Chapel in the June quarter of 1919; she was the sister-in law of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. Ivan was a Captain in the Scots Guards during the First World War and served in France, where he was injured. Later he joined the family brewing business, Tolly Cobbold, and became chairman after his father’s death in 1929. He also was President of Ipswich Town FC. At the time of his death he was the Commanding Officer of the Scots Guards. He is commemorated on Panel 1 at Golders Green Crematorium, and on the Rannoch War Memorial on the east bank of Loch Rannoch.


From The Times, June 27, 1944

PERSONAL TRIBUTE
LIEUT.-COLONEL J.M. COBBOLD

Lord Cranworth writes:-
Ivan Cobbold was a man of many talents, great abilities, and infinite charm. Moreover, he was a patriot with every fibre of his being. At an early age he succeeded to many possessions and with them great responsibilities, and it was his worthy pride to know the one intimately and to undertake the latter with a full and particular care. There was no one on his estate or in his business with whom he was not fully acquainted and with whose welfare he was not concerned.

As a sportsman Ivan was most distinguished. A good cricketer in the Eton XI and a fine player of all ball games, he will be best remembered as a great shot - indeed he had good claims to rank as the best of his contemporaries. When a well-known paper called for the names of the 12 best shots, his name was included in every list and usually at the top. He was an almost equally good fisherman. Moreover, he was equally interested in the sport of others. Thus, he spent much time, money and an infinity of pains in launching the Ipswich football team on what bade fair to be a most prosperous career.

In his busy life he never neglected public work in his country and when he undertook a job one knew that it would be done and well done.
Leaving school while young he joined the Scots Guards and saw service in France, where he was wounded. He rejoined his old regiment at the outbreak of the present war and when killed was employed with the American forces in a post of supreme importance for which he was ideally qualified. In that position, he will be hard indeed to replace.

As a host he was at his very best. His aim was the happiness of each of his many guest. His home life was perfect. He was adored by his family. Their happinesss was his happiness and their sorrows and disappointments his.

Such was the life Ivan Cobbold lived, and his manner of living it brought him much esteem and hosts of friends. But there was another Ivan of which the world knew less. This was the man who went about quietly doing kindnesses to those in trouble, whether monetary or otherwise. His heart, his hand, and his pocket were ever ready with the one proviso, "No one is to know." He was a man of true generousity and intense loyalty and these characteristics will stand in the memory of his friends as a monument more enduring than brass.

Anthony Cobbold 2020 & 2025