| Information: |
Gerard Francis Cobb was born 15 October 1838 at Nettlestead ,Kent. He was educated at Marlborough College from 1849-1875. Afterwards he went up to Triniti College, Cambridge. After a short stay in Dresden he returned to Cambridge, where he spent the rest of his life. His professional activities centred around the day-to-day running of the College. When Cobb went up to Trinity in 1857 the Professor of Music was the recently appointed (1856) William Sterndale Bennett (1816-1875). Cobb enjoyed Bennett's friendship and was helpful to him in dealing with the Faculty of Music.
On Bennett\'s death, the Professorship passed to the blind George Macfarren (1813-1887). Cobb proved equally helpful to the new incumbent, particularly in the reform of the Faculty . He had been elected President of the Cambridge University Musical Society in 1874 and became Chairman of the University Board of Musical Studies in 1877, serving in that capacity for fifteen years.
Among the illustrious musicians who passed through Cambridge at this time was the young Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) who, although matriculating at Queen's College in 1870, was appointed organist at Trinity in 1873 and graduated from there in 1874 - having "migrated" from Queen's. Stanford was appointed conductor of the Cambridge University Musical Society in 1873, and it was partly through Cobb's influence that he was given leave of absence during the years 1874-1876 to continue his studies at Leipzig and Berlin. On Stanford's death, a fellow undergraduate wrote to the Press to confirm Cobb's influence on him. He added that there were many who would remember with pleasure and gratitude the delightful musical parties that were given in Cobb's rooms after "hall" on Sunday nights in the 1870s - with Stanford invariably to the fore .
In 1893 Cobb married Elizabeth Lucy Parkinson, widow of Stephen Parkinson, Fellow and Tutor of St. John's College, Cambridge, and (in accordance with the custom of the time) resigned his offices at Trinity. He continued to reside in Cambridge and devoted himself mainly to musical composition. From this last period of his life came the second (1893) and third (1897) sets of Barrack-Room Ballads (the first having appeared in 1892) and his delightful Twenty-four Songs for Little People (1897) to words by Norman Gale (d.1942), as well as works on a larger canvas, including his most ambitious work - A Song of Trafalgar Op. 41, a Ballad for men's voices (solo and chorus) and orchestra (1900) (38), to words by Edith Nesbit (1858-1924) - remembered today as the author of The Railway Children (1906).
Gerard Francis Cobb died at The Hermitage on 31 March 1904 having succumbed to an attack of pneumonia.
|