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Lt Cdr Peter Cobby BEM RN World Naval Ships Forums Archive

Lt Cdr Peter Cobby BEM RN

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[INDENT][URL="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9146704/Lieutenant-Commander-Peter-Cobby.html"]Lt Cdr Peter Cobby BEM RN[/URL][/INDENT] [QUOTE=Daily Telegraph 15 Mar 2012] [B]Lieutenant-Commander Peter Cobby, who had died aged 82, was twice commended for his bravery in defusing German mines and established a world-class diving school in Scotland.[/B] On January 26 1957 Petty Officer Diver Cobby was called from the classroom (where as an adult he was studying for the 'O’ levels necessary to become an officer) and sent to West India Dock in London, where a giant German mine containing 1,570 kilos of explosive had been found lying in the mud. Work was stopped in the busy port and a large area around the bomb was evacuated while Cobby, Leading Seaman Peter Alderton and Able Seaman Eric Harris worked by touch in the dark and unlit water. They took turns in making repeated dives on the mine to dismantle it, treating it as though it had multiple fuses — they did not know whether it was likely to blow up. The three men were awarded BEMs for their skill and gallantry. In December 1969 a similar mine was discovered off the breakwater of Portland Harbour, lying in 35ft of water. This mine was known to contain several devices to stop it being rendered safe. Detonating it was ruled out because of the risk of a major explosion . On this occasion Cobby worked with Lieutenant-Commander John Grattan. They approached cautiously and cleaned the mine before attaching a small, close-fitting charge which they used to cut open the casing. After two attempts they succeeded, and though the explosives in the mine caught fire, there was only a minor blast. Cobby and Grattan received a commendation from their Commander-in-Chief. Peter John Clement Cobby was born on April 16 1929 in Brighton and educated at Brighton Intermediate School. He joined the Royal Navy as a boy seaman in 1945, and served in the Navy’s last battleship, Vanguard. His leadership qualities and natural seamanship were quickly recognised, and by 1949 he was a leading seaman in a minesweeping trawler in the Mediterranean serving as her chief boatswain’s mate. In 1951 he qualified as a diver, and his first draft was to the Mediterranean Fleet Clearance Diving Team, which was responsible for clearing ports and harbours of munitions left over from the Second World War. Between 1954 and 1958 Cobby served as senior diver in the minehunter Brenchley in the 51st Minesweeping Squadron. He qualified as a clearance diver 1st class and as an instructor, and studied for promotion to sub-lieutenant. Cobby returned to sea as a watchkeeping officer in 1958-59 in the Navy’s last coal-fired steamship, the diving tender Reclaim. This was followed by the challenging post of officer-in-charge of the Admiralty Experimental Diving Team, when he oversaw a number of trials ranging from underwater demolition to radiography. He went on to serve as navigator in the frigate Eastbourne (1961-62) and as first-lieutenant and diving officer of the inshore minehunter Dingley, where his duties included aircraft salvage. From 1965 to 1967 he taught at the Joint Services Bomb Disposal School, and in 1967-68 he was diving training officer at the diving school HMS Vernon. He then returned to Reclaim and was employed on deep diving trials and salvage — he was involved in raising the crashed Aer Lingus Viscount Flight 712 from the seabed south-east of Ireland, wrote the procedures for rendering safe Polaris missiles, and located an experimental torpedo lost in Loch Long in Scotland. From 1970 to 1973 Cobby was on loan to the US Navy, and spent a record-breaking 21 days in a pressurised bathysphere at a simulated depth of 1,000ft and helped to salvage a US Marine Corps aircraft which had crashed off the coast of North Carolina . Cobby was next appointed officer-in-charge of the RN Saturation Diving Team and Deputy Superintendent of Diving, responsible for the conduct and safety of dives in support of physiological experiments at depth . Then, however he discovered that the Navy was not going to continue its diving research, and he resigned from the Service. He became head of a deep-diving school at Fort William , which became regarded as the most advanced civilian diving school in the world . In 1978 Cobby joined Fathomline, which bid to design and build an advanced oil rig tender for the North Sea. The company won the contract, and Cobby oversaw the building of a £70 million ship in Finland, worked her up, and handed her over to Shell. He married, in 1950, Peggy Griffith, who predeceased him. He is survived by their two daughters and two sons. Lt-Cdr Peter Cobby, born April 16 1929, died February 2 2012[/QUOTE] This WNSF thread is also relevant: [URL="http://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5547&highlight=mark+terrell"]Mark Turrell RN Diver?[/URL] Peter Cobby is shown as the seated Petty Officer on the right in the attached photo. Interestingly, his grand daughter is the Chief MEA of the new Type 45 destroyer HMS [I]Dauntless[/I].
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A very interesting story Rob, about a particularly gallant gentleman-such men are the salt of the earth.May he now RIP. jainso31

Hi Rob Read the obit in the paper this morning, a brave and clever man. Friend of yours? Mitch Hinde

Not exactly, Mitch, but we have often chatted on the phone and his grand daughter has offered to show me around her ship sometime next month. I drew the attention of the DT's naval obituary writer to his death and put him in contact with the family. There are many tributes from Peter's friends and coverage of his thanksgiving service on the MCDOA website's Latest News page.

Hi Rob Thanks for that. I thought that given your history you would at least know of him. Very interesting man. Mitch Hinde

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