Cobb, William Albert 1913 - 1999

(1913-1999), neurophysiologist

William Albert Cobb was born in Margate, Kent on 25 October 1913. He was educated at Dauntsey’s School, Wiltshire before pursuing a medical degree at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, qualifying in 1936. In 1938, he took up a post as resident anaesthetist at King’s George’s Hospital, Ilford and the West London Hospital.

During the Second World War (1939-1945), Cobb worked as an anaesthetist and electroencephalographer for the Emergency Medical Service, a state-run network of hospital services organised by the Ministry of Health. He was based at the Head Injuries Unit at Hurstwood Park Hospital, Lindfield, and focused on the localisation of brain tumours. After the war, Cobb returned to London to become an honorary anaesthetist at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases in Queen Square. There, he was appointed as a clinical neurophysiologist when the hospital joined the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948.

Cobb was married twice, first to Hilda Leonore Hooper in 1941, with whom he had three children, and then to Lorn Cobb. He died on 27 August 1999.