Cobb was born in the village of Esher, in the county of Surrey, on 2 December 1899, near the Brooklandsmotor racing track which he frequented as a boy. He was the son of Florence and Rhodes Cobb, a wealthy furs broker in the City of London. He received his formal education at Eton College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, before joining his father's firm and pursuing a successful career as the managing director of a number companies in the trade, the personal financial resources from which he used to fund a passion for large capacimotor high speed racing. In 1924 he acquired a Royal Aero Club aviator's certificate, qualifying as a pilot on a Sopwith Grasshopper.
Racing and speed records career
Cobb won his first track race in a 1911 10-litre Fiat in 1925, and raced in the Higham Special at Brooklands race track in 1926. In 1928 he privately purchased a 10.5-litre Delage which was imported to England from the factory in Paris, which he raced at Brooklands from 1929 to 1933, breaking the flying start outer lap Record three times in these years, and being clocked at a top speed of 138.88 miles per hour on 2 July 1932. In 1932 he also won the British Empire Trophy at Brooklands. In 1933 he privately commissioned the design and construction of the 24-litre "Napier Railton" from "Thomson & Taylor", with which he broke a number of track speed records, including setting the ultimate lap record at the Brooklands race track which was never surpassed, driving at an average speed of achieved on 7 October 1935, having earlier overtaken the 1931 record set by Sir Henry "Tim" Birkin driving Bentley Blower No.1, and regaining it from his friend Oliver Bertram. Driving the piston-engined, wheel-driven Railton Special, he broke the WorldLand Speed Record at Bonneville salt flats on 15 September 1938 by achieving 350 miles per hour. He broke it a second time at the same site on 23 August 1939, achieving 369 miles per hour.
Cobb returned to Bonneville salt flats again in 1947, where on 16 September he beat his own standing 1939 World Land Speed Record by reaching 394.19 mph, earning him the press moniker "The Fastest Man Alive". This record remained in place until 1963, when it was surpassed by the AmericanCraig Breedlove. After the 1947 achievement, Cobb turned his mind to becoming on water what he now was on land, and went after the simultaneous World Water Speed Record. He commissioned from Vospers the jet-engine powered speedboat Crusader, and selected the long water loch of Loch Ness in Scotland for the speed trial. On 29 September 1952 he was killed at the age of 52 whilst attempting to break the world Water Speed Record at Loch Ness whilst piloting Crusader at a speed in excess of. During the run the boat hit an unexplained wake in the water and disintegrated about Cobb. His body, which had been thrown 50 yards beyond the wreckage, was recovered from the loch, and subsequently conveyed back to his home county of Surrey, where it was buried in the graveyard of Christ Church, Esher. A memorial was subsequently erected on the Loch Ness shore to his memory by the townsfolk of Glenurquhart. In 2002 the remains of the jet engine speedboat Crusader were located on the bed of Loch Ness at a depth of 200 metres and the site was designated as a scheduled monument in 2005. The wreck was filmed by a research team from National Geographic in 2019.
Personal life
John Cobb married Elizabeth Mitchell-Smith in 1947. Elizabeth died from Bright's Disease 14 months later. In 1950 he married Margaret Glass. Cobb resided at 'Grove House' in Esher, an 18th century mansion, which was demolished in the late 20th century for building development. A public green in Esher was named 'Cobb Green' in tribute to his achievements. In 2013 an archaeological excavation of meadowland at Arran Way at Esher's Lower Green uncovered the foundations of Grove House. In 2017 a Blue plaque was unveiled by Richard Noble to Cobb's memory at the newly re-built Cranmere Primary School which partially occupies the site of the former Grove House estate.
