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THE GIFTS OF FRANK COBBOLD

(to be published in October 2008 in conjunction with The Cobbold Family History Trust)

This is the biography of Frank Cobbold  which was written after his death in 1935 by Arthur W Upfield. It recounts the dangers, problems and difficulties experienced in a very full life that had covered shipwrecks, cattle ranching, financial gambles, sheep herding and property deals. ’  The observation is made that ‘The difference between the successful and the failure – a failure is not he who is content to remain in lowly circumstances, but rather he who earnestly strives to succeed – is due to hereditary influences. It can be due to nothing else. FE was blood related to a dynasty of men who lived clean lives, who were just and upright, and whose ambition was to create and organise. Money was not the objective but the means wherewith to reach it.’

Francis Edward Elliston was born to Arthur Thomas Cobbold and Sarah Elliston in 1853 at Wykes Bishop Street in Ipswich - the seventh son of a seventh son.  He was baptised at St Clements as Francis Edward Cobbold Elliston.  His complicated background and early life are described in The Cobbold Elliston Affair.

Frank’s great love was for the sea, and his overriding ambition was to own and sail his own ship through the Southern Seas, like his eldest brother Arthur James. Naturally his parents did not like this proposal, but ultimately they were forced to give in and his father arranged a place for him on a suitable ship heading for Australia. Frank Cobbold joined the Ann Duthie at London Docks and severed the links with his family and country of birth. ‘He is small and thin but you will find him active’ is reportedly what a reluctant Arthur Cobbold said to the Captain of the Ann Duthie when he apprenticed his 14-year-old son in 1867.

This passage, on a wool clipper to Australia, set the direction of Frank’s life. As a Fijian trader, he escaped the cannibals and the Levuka hurricane to arrive in Australia in 1873. He quickly became a highly sought after ranch manager, forged strong business relationships based on his absolute integrity and became a qualified Surveyor. Despite problems that would have defeated a less resolute man, he took droughts, cheats, liars, bankers and unyielding land tenure regulations in his stride. When he next returned to East Anglia in 1906, nearly forty years later, Frank observed that he had put so much energy and commitment into his life in Australia that he no longer felt like an Englishman or part of an English family; he had become a Queenslander.

Frank Cobbold, 1890Frank Cobbold was married twice, first to Elizabeth Fulford in 1889, who died nine years later on the same day as his father. He then married Beatrice Child in 1901; there were no children from either of these marriages.

He persisted in tirelessly spending days in the saddle, which gave rise to his lifelong love of horse racing. A partnership with his brother-in-law William Cain was profitable to both parties; the hard work and shrewd decision-making continued and they prospered. Some more time was given to his racing interests, 'The Brilliant Conquistador' having his best season ever in 1914/15. The purchase of the huge Hughenden sheep station, and the further acquisition of Yarram Park at the foot of the Grampions, did nothing to reduce the amount of travelling. Beatrice, however, longed for a home where she could settle and this she eventually accomplished in 1919 at 7 Fulham Avenue, South Yarra. From there, she was able to accompany Frank to Europe every three years and to Hughenden for four or five months every winter.  Their last visit to England was in 1933.
Hughenden sheep station

Active and energetic to the last, Frank Cobbold died on 31 August 1935, without children and leaving estates in England and Australia valued at over half a million pounds. His legacies comprised less than £400 each to his several nieces, plus a further sum of between £5,000 and £8,000 each if they lived for a term of 21 years (at that time they were
already between 35 and 42 years of age), and nothing to his great-nephews, since his view was that boys should make their way in the world – as indeed he had done himself.

After a life interest to Beatrice, Frank Cobbold left the residue of his estate to The Royal United Kingdom Beneficent Association (Rukba) to provide annuities for needy Suffolk residents. Beatrice died in 1951 and annuities have been paid from the F E Cobbold Trust Fund ever since. RUKBA is now Independent Age, and the legacy is much larger than required to fulfil Frank Cobbold’s expressed wishes. Consequently, the High Court has given permission to spend income surplus to the requirements of Suffolk residents on annuities and grants for temporary help to eligible persons in other parts of Great Britain and Eire. In their accounts, published at the end of 2004, the F E Cobbold Trust Fund had a value of £9.9 million - the largest bequest ever received by Rukba.

An obituary in the North Queensland Register dated Saturday, February 1, 1936 refers to Frank Edward Cobbold as ‘A bold speculator, a keen buyer, and a man of high integrity, Mr Cobbold was just the citizen for a young country; he loved the land and preferred to have his money there; in broad acres and sheep. When he was compelled to accumulate bonds he was ever on the look out for an opportunity to dispose of them and add a station to his list. It is pleasing to know that much of his wealth will pass to a charitable institution, and ameliorate the condition of many who were not so successful in life as himself.’

CONTENTS

Chapter 1         Early Years
Chapter 2         Apprenticed to the Sea
Chapter 3         Swallowing the Anchor
Chapter 4         The Coral Island
Chapter 5          Stormy Days and Wild Men
Chapter 6          Fijian Adventures
Chapter 7          The Fiji War
Chapter 8          Cobbold takes up Surveying
Chapter 9          Pioneers of the West
Chapter 10         Misfortunes and Triumphs
Chapter 11         Monkira
Chapter 12         Miranda Downs and The Oaks
Chapter 13         O'Brien, Cobbold & Co
Chapter 14         Stormy Waters
Chapter 15         'A Cantankerous Old Man'
Chapter 16         Cobbold & Co
Chapter 17         Changing Scenes
Chapter 18         Inverleigh
Chapter 19         '... and now Sheep'
Chapter 20         Horses
Chapter 21         Home Ports
Chapter 22         Farewell

THE GIFTS OF FRANK COBBOLD

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