Don Cobley

Don Cobley was from Leicestershire and attended Hinckley Technical College. He was a keen runner as a youngster and came second in the 1949 Leicestershire & Rutland Cross-Country Championships, a title he would win three years later.

Cobley joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1952 and won the RAF Modern Pentathlon Championship five times between 1955-59. He also won the individual title at the 1955 Combined Services Modern Pentathlon Championships, and won it for a second time in 1959, after finishing second a year earlier.

Cobley also won the British title three times and competed in the 1954 and 1957 World Modern Pentathlon Championships in Budapest and Stockholm respectively, finishing second in the cross-country section in the first of those two years. Cobley also appeared at two Olympics, winning the cross-country in 1956. Four years later in Rome he was the only survivor of the British team from Melbourne.

Cobley was awarded the British Empire Medal in the 1964 New Year’s Honours list for his service to the RAF. He went on to compete 37-years-service with them, many as a warrant officer. Cobley sadly died in a drowning accident while on holiday at his daughter Denise’s home in New Zealand.