John Cobbing 10.2.1938 - 5.1.2023

[Stephen Blakey]

Very sadly, club stalwart John Cobbing died on Thursday morning. I was his third, and only successful, attempt to train up a co-driver and we did thousands of miles together in his vintage Bentleys. The world is a much poorer place without him. By way of catharsis, I have written an obit which may make it into the Review. In the meantime I thought I should park it here as I know that a number of forum posters knew John.



John was born in Lincolnshire on the 10th of February 1938. After education at Stamford, he did National Service with the RAF and subsequently read Botany at the University of St Andrews where, unsurprisingly given his obvious intelligence, he gained a degree with first class honours.

Following a postgraduate brewing course, John took a job as a brewer at Scottish Breweries in Edinburgh and stayed in brewing throughout his working life. John’s daily driver at this time was a MKVI 4½, B466 NZ, which he acquired as a relatively young man. A growing interest in Bentleys inspired him to join the BDC. He therefore went to his local BDC gathering and mentioned his wish to join the club to a committee member who asked John what sort of Bentley he had. As John put it,” I pushed my chest out and proudly announced that I’d got a MKVI!” John was rather crestfallen by the response, “Well I suppose anything gets you in”.

Following advice that what he really needed was a WO, in 1963 John paid £350 for the 1928 4½ litre, chassis number NT3149 complete with the remains of its second body. John always maintained that he had paid £50 too much for the car but gained some consolation from the ten bob he got for the aluminium from the body. He drove the car, sans body, to the coachbuilders where he commissioned a VDP style body, which was neither a VDP replica nor green. In fact as far as I can tell, all John’s Bentleys were blue. John joined the BDC on the 9th of September 1963 at the age of 25, and was a member for over 58 years.

He left Edinburgh for Bury St Edmunds where he was head brewer at Green King, then finally settled in Sheffield brewing Wards. There, he bought the R Type Continental BC68C and had it restored on a rolling restoration basis over a number of winters by P&A Wood. He also commissioned John Anderson to build a MKVI special, which is still seen at many club events.

John’s final and greatest Bentley project was the ex-Chris Posnett 8L which he commissioned Wayne Huckle to rebuild, from what John liked to describe as “a box of bits”.

John was treasurer of the E. Mids region for what seemed like forever, and gave his time and energy to this role way beyond the call of duty. For example he thought nothing of going to France, at his own expense, to check out hotels for club trips.

John was a most helpful and generous person who volunteered for many charities during his retirement. His generosity was put to the test when the E. Mids region entered the 2016 regional team challenge at the BDC concours, whereby each region was to submit three cars for judging. We found ourselves one car short of the target and a phone call went out to John, who was in France at the time, to ask if we could please borrow his 4½. The reply was classic John; “Yes of course. The house key is under the doormat. Just let yourselves in and take it!”

John’s beloved 4½ must be one of the most “campaigned” cars in the club having been to innumerable BDC gatherings as well as countless trips to France including Le Mans where it was used in the “Parade des Pilotes” before the races, as well as many continental trips just for fun. This was the last Bentley that he sold.

Although John became rather frail physically towards the end, he was always as sharp as a tack. He much enjoyed reminiscing about the old days of the club. On my last visit to him, before Christmas, he told me about the Scottish Whit gatherings that used to be very lively affairs. So much so, in fact, that he remembered two Hotels declining repeat bookings from the club.

John will be hugely missed for his kindness, mighty intellect, wicked sense of humour, loyalty and generosity. They don’t make them like that anymore