Wilfrid Cockbain, wartime soldier who survived several close calls involving tanks and missiles – obituary

Wilfrid Cockbain, who has died aged 105, served with the Royal Artillery (RA) throughout the Second World War and had several narrow escapes from death.

During the Italian Campaign, Cockbain was an RA spotter and was at the foot of a mountain with two comrades when a gunner fired a shell. He miscalculated the trajectory and the missile, instead of clearing the crest, blasted into the side of the mountain. The three men were blown to the ground by the shock wave.

Cockbain was almost unscathed, but his companions lost consciousness. Improvised stretchers made from rifles slotted through the arms of great coats were used to carry the men, but medical staff were unable to save them and they died during the night.

On another occasion, Cockbain was in the turret of a tank crossing a river via a pontoon bridge. The driver pulled the wrong lever and the tank suddenly swung around and lurched off the pontoon into the water.

Thrown clear and swept downriver, Cockbain managed to grasp an overhanging branch and haul himself to safety, but the rest of the crew were trapped in the tank and drowned.

Wilfrid Ludlow Cockbain was born in Birkenhead on June 22 1915. His father was an education clerk while his mother ran a haberdashery shop. At that time many children died in infancy of polio or TB, and Wilfrid’s elder brother died of diphtheria aged 19.

After attending secondary school at Birkenhead Technical Institute, Wilfrid was articled to a firm of chartered surveyors. In 1939, following basic training at Aldershot, he joined the 56th (London) Infantry Division.

The Division was deployed in Iraq guarding the oilfields, and then travelled more than 2,000 miles to join the 8th Army in the Western Desert. Cockbain took part in the Battle of El Alamein and the landing at Salerno.

He saw fierce fighting at the Battle of Monte Cassino and on the Gothic Line before finishing the campaign in Trieste. In 1946 he was demobilised and returned to England to work as a chartered surveyor for the government works department. When he retired in 1980 he was head of the government property department in Preston.

Cockbain had a lifelong passion for cars and for many years was secretary of a regional motor rally club. He was also an MG crew member in the Le Mans 24 Hours Race in 1961 and 1962.

He travelled extensively and independently. For 78 years he held a clean driving licence until he voluntarily gave it up at 94. “I just live in a way that helps my fellow beings,” he used to say. “I live comfortably with my neighbours. If they are not very good neighbours, I treat them just the same.”

Aged 103, he finally sold his home of 50 years in Southport and moved to a care home.

Wilfrid Cockbain married, in 1964, Ada Hornsby at Kalamunda, Perth, Western Australia. She predeceased him; there were no children.

Wilfrid Cockbain, born June 22 1915, died January 30 2021