Alexander Cobbe - Military Career

Military Career

The highlights of Alexander Cobbe’s military career can be tracked by the regular records of his promotions and deeds published in the London Gazette. In March 1892 he was promoted to Lieutenant and later in the same year he was seconded to the Indian Army Staff Corps. This secondment led to his permanent transfer from the South Wales Borderers in 1894. The purpose of the Indian Staff Corps was not only to provide officers for headquarters’ staff but, far more broadly, for the native Indian regiments, the army departments and also for civil and political appointments for which Indian Army officers might be eligible. In 1903 in order to avoid confusion the designation 'Indian Staff Corps' as applied to officers on regimental duty was withdrawn and replaced by the more appropriate term 'Indian Army', which is how Cobbe was referred to in all later Gazette entries. In India in 1895 Cobbe gained his first medal, the India Medal (1895–1902), with the clasp “Relief of Chitral”. This campaign was one of the many on the Northwest Frontier to quell unrest against British rule.

His next medals, however, were to be gained in Africa. At this time many regiments of the Indian Army were sent to Africa to support British foreign policy in the region. On this continent Cobbe was kept busy on several minor colonial campaigns gaining him the Central Africa Medal with clasp “Central Africa 1894-1898”, the East and West Africa Medal (1887–1900) and the Africa General Service Medal with the clasp “B.C.A 1898-1899” (British Central Africa, later Nyasaland and today Malawi). In October 1899 Cobbe was appointed Second in Command of the 1st Battalion, British Central Africa Rifles, and given the local rank of Captain.