From Downing College Newsletter: Peter Cobb, known as Freddie in his early years, died on 30th December 1997 aged 82. He served in the colonial administration of Nigeria and subsequently as a schoolmaster in both England and Switzerland.

Peter was born in London on 17th December 1915. He spent his early years in Switzerland, close to Lake Geneva, with his grandparents during the First World War. Throughout his life he retained a close attachment to the region, eventually retiring to the French Jura, just over the border. Joining UCS in 1928, he lived the same lodgings as Philip Bryant who taught English and who fostered his interest in running, also sharing his deep personal Christian faith. In 1933 he went to University College London, graduating in Chemistry before moving to Downing College, Cambridge to achieve a first class degree in Physics.

Wanting to follow his father into the Colonial Service, he completed a year's Colonial course at Cambridge before leaving for Nigeria in 1938 as an Assistant District Officer. At the outbreak of war he served with the West African Frontier Force as Captain but was recalled to civilian duties in 1943 to serve with the Secretariat at Enugu in the Eastern Provinces, becoming District Officer and, in 1956, Resident of Onitsha. In 1952 he won a Harkness Commonwealth Fund Fellowship allowing him to spend one year travelling the USA from coast to coast studying Community Development. When Nigeria gained its independence in 1958 he returned to the UK. He joined Cheltenham Grammar School where he taught Mathematics until 1969. On holiday in Switzerland a chance meeting led to an offer of a post as Head of Physics at the Institut du Rosey, an international school at Rolle on the shores of Lake Geneva, where he remained until he retired.

Peter was a man of great personal integrity who enjoyed many of the simple pleasures of life; cultivating a large and productive vegetable garden, a fine wine cellar and acquiring the stone masonry skills needed to rebuild his 16th century farm house. He was a keen beekeeper and developed a large collection of experimental equipment & instruments of Physics. He retired in 1980 to rural France where he become a well respected member of the local community. He married Mary Bower in 1946. He leaves her with their 4 children and 10 grandchildren.

Obituary from "Association Newsletter and College Record, 1998"; Downing College; Cambridge, England: "Frederic Peter Cobb (1936) --- Peter Cobb died at his home in the French Jura 30 December 1997. Born 17 December 1915 he was a pupil at University College School and from there went to London University and took his B.Sc. He then came up to Downing at the age of 21 as an affiliated student and read Natural Sciences. He gained his B.A. after the requisite two years and joined the Colonial Service in Nigeria in 1937. When war broke out he served as a captain in the West African Frontier Force. On demobilisation he rejoined the Colonial Administrative Service and was posted to the Eastern Region of Nigeria, later called Biafra, where he became Resident of the Onitsha Province until independence in 1958. He then returned to England and became a teacher of maths and physics at Cheltenham Grammar School. In 1969 he was offered the position of Head of the Physics Department at the Institut le Rosey, an international school in Switzerland, where he remained until his retirement in 1980. From his home at Moiron, near Lons le Saunier, he could satisfy his fondness for mountain climbing and skiing, and became a conoisseur of good wine. He married his wife, Mary, (to whom we are indebted for this information) in 1946; she survives him with their four children and ten
grandchildren.