The Savant of East Street

The Savant of East Street

Alfred Cobham in his graduation gown

Little Rosie Walmsley in 1918

Alfred Cobham is one of Southport’s most exceptional, yet little known characters. He was born on Christmas Day 1857, one of eleven siblings. His father was Roger Cobham from Mawdesley, and his mother was Ann Leadbetter from Churchtown, whose family had lived in North Meols from the mid 18th century. Roger was a basket maker, and Alfred left school at the age of 8 to work with his father. Alfred’s mother Ann was a silk weaver, who enjoyed music and poetry and studied the bible, and he was much influenced by her.

At first Alfred made Venetian blinds, a trade his father had later taken to, but subsequently became a painter and decorator. In 1879 at the age of 22 he married Mary Orme, a cotton weaver from Stockport. Around this time he also realised that he really needed to get an education, despite the fact that in Southport the only provision for adult education was the Popular Lectures at the YMCA.

Alfred’s first step was to teach himself shorthand, and he was so successful he was soon able to give lessons on it at the YMCA. In 1873 the Cambridge University Extension Scheme began, and Southport was an early adopter in 1874. However, the early years were difficult, and though lectures were given in Birkdale and Southport, it wasn’t until 1896 that the Southport University Extension Society (SUES) itself was founded, which is now the only extension society that still survives in the UK.

It was at this time that Miss Emily Rigby, secretary of the Southport Branch, persuaded Alfred to join, and so at the age of 39, he took his first lecture series, a course on Greek History. From this time Alfred attended many courses, and when, in 1923, after gaining over 30 certificates in 27 years, he was awarded, at the age of 65, the degree of MA by Cambridge University.

It was this distinction that brought Alfred nationwide renown, as it was widely reported that he was the first manual worker to gain such an honour whilst still pursuing his trade. After this he was also honoured by Southport students, when they presented him with a robe, and with his portrait, which used to hang in Southport Library.

Alfred was a great believer in education for its own sake, for him, the joy of learning was its own reward. For many years he was heavily involved with the Workers’ Educational Association, giving lectures for them on the history of literature. Alfred played the concertina and his other main interests in life were politics and religion, which combined in his Christian Socialism. He was an inveterate writer of letters as well, and the Southport Guardian of those days is littered with the controversies he was involved in, and became known as the savant of East Street, where he and his family lived.

In March 1929 Alfred and his wife celebrated their Golden Wedding, and in May 1930 he was made a Justice of the Peace. Later that year he was diagnosed with cancer and took his own life, and the flag of the Town Hall was flown at half-mast as a sign of respect.

One other thing of interest about Alfred is his two granddaughters, Annie and Rosie Walmsley. Both were child entertainers, both singers and dancers, who performed in the Southport and Preston areas during the first world war. Rosie became the more famous of the two, and as a male impersonator was compared to the famous Vesta Tilley.

Rosie performed at the magnificent Palladium theatre on Lord Street (later known as the Odeon), and an article in the Southport Visiter in 1988 says that Rosie was paid £6 to appear nightly there for a week in August 1923, when she was not quite 15, when the typical weekly wage for a working man might be £2 to £3 per week. Rosie’s fame did not really extend beyond the local area, and she married in 1934. She lived in Stanley Street, and died in 1977.