His CWGC Headstone reads:
A.J. Cogbill M.A.
Royal Air Force
22nd March 1944 aged 35
the beloved youngest son
of George and Jane Cogbill
‘In the shadow of thy wings
will I rejoice’”
Mr. Cogbill was a Pilot Officer who served as a Flying Control Officer at R.A.F. Marston Moor, where he was killed in an accident. He was serving with 1658 Heavy Conversion Unit. He was a crew member of Halifax II W7865 which took off from Riccall on a training exercise, but which crashed in Yorkshire. One man was killed, others were taken to hospital where two, including P/O Cogbill, died.
The Berwick Advertiser 21/07/1938 reads:-
The Governors of Bedlington Secondary School have appointed Mr Arthur J. Cogbill, M.A. (Birmingham) as senior English Master. Mr Cogbill has been on the staff of Bewick Grammar School since 1935. He is a native of Evesham and had four years' experience as English Master at Newstead School for Boys at Doune, Perthshire. He holds the Diploma of Education (London).
He has taken a great interest in the Grammar School Dramatic Society and has been producer of the Shakespearean plays which have been so admirably presented by the boys. He has been an active member of Berwick Amateur Dramatic Society and has taken leading parts in many of their productions.
The Berwick Advertiser 16/11/1944 reports:-
The fund which has been opened is to raise a sum of money to provide an annual prize in Elocution and Dramatic Art.
It was from Bedlington Secondary School that he joined the R.A.F.. He was Commanding Officer of the Bedlington Squadron of the A.T.C. and while at Bedlington he introduced an annual open air Shakespearean Play.
Pilot Officer Cogbill was the youngest son of the late Mr and Mrs D. Cogbill, Honnington near Stratford on Avon. He was 35 years old at the time of his death.
Newcastle Evening Chronicle 23/07/1945 includes a letter announcing the closure of the Memorial Fund as it had reached its goal of £100.
His photo is shown in “Bedlingtonshire Revisited including Those were the Days; September 2006." A Six Townships Publication; page 7.
The school prize is no longer awarded. (2018)
Arthur James Cogbill is remembered in Morpeth on M17.13 and in Bedlington on B15.13
