In January 1902 Alexander Cobbe was granted the local rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and appointed Commandant of the 1st (Central Africa) Battalion, the King's African Rifles, and in this post he deployed with his men to British Somaliland to take part in the “Mad Mullah War”.
During the action at Erego, on 6 October, 1902, when some of the Companies had retired, Lieutenant-Colonel Cobbe was left by himself in front of the line, with a Maxim gun. Without assistance he brought in the Maxim, and worked it at a most critical time. He then went out under an extremely hot fire from the enemy about 20 yards in front of him, and from his own men (who had retired) about the same distance behind, and succeeded in carrying in a wounded Orderly.
Cobbe was awarded the Victoria Cross on 20th January 1903.
This week, a small team from the Trust renovated his grave which was in a poor condition. They were were ably helped by a small team of from the village of Sharnbrook where Sir Alexander Hope Cobbe lies buried. All made possible through support and funding received as part of the Maintaining the Memories project from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund.
This is our biggest single grave project to date.
