Anne Philippa Cobbe (7 August 1920 – 15 December 1971) was a
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
On ...
at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
. She was an inspirational and supportive
pure mathematics tutor at
Somerville College
Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, ...
which, during her time there, was still a
women's college
Women's colleges in higher education are undergraduate, bachelor's degree-granting institutions, often liberal arts colleges, whose student populations are composed exclusively or almost exclusively of women. Some women's colleges admit male stud ...
.
Early life
Anne was born in
Sharnbrook
Sharnbrook is a village and civil parish located in the Borough of Bedford in Bedfordshire, England.
The settlement was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as a parish within the Hundred of Willey but was probably first developed in Saxon ti ...
,
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...
, youngest child of General
Alexander Cobbe
General Sir Alexander Stanhope Cobbe (6 June 1870 – 29 June 1931) was a senior British Indian Army officer and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Com ...
(member of the
Cobbe family
The Cobbe family is an Irish landed family. The family has a notable history, and has produced several prominent Irish politicians, clergymen, writers, activists and soldiers, such as philosopher, writer and social reformer Frances Power Cobbe ...
) and Winifred Ada Bowen.
Her mother was the daughter of
Sir Albert Bowen, 1st Baronet, lord of
Colworth House
Colworth House is an 18th-century mansion set in an area of parkland on the edge of the village of Sharnbrook in Bedfordshire. It is a Grade II* listed building.
History
The surrounding site has been occupied since prehistoric times. The current ...
, where Anne grew up. She had a sister, Winifred Alice (born 1912) and brother, Alexander William Locke (born 1919). At the age of ten, her father died. Her brother, known as Bill, was killed as an
RAF
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
pilot in the
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...
in 1940.
Education and career
She attended
Downe House School
Downe House School is a selective independent girls' day and boarding school in Cold Ash, a village near Newbury, Berkshire, for girls aged 11–18.
The ''Good Schools Guide'' described Downe House as an "Archetypal traditional girls' full ...
near
Newbury, Berkshire. She started reading mathematics in the
Sixth form
In the education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepare for A-l ...
but sat the history scholarship examinations at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
in 1938. The result being that she was told that history was not the right subject for her to study. The following year, 1939, she sat the mathematics entrance exam and was awarded an exhibition for a place at
Somerville College, Oxford.
(Her head teacher
Olive Willis
Olive Margaret Willis (26 October 1877 – 11 March 1964) was an English educationist and headmistress. She founded Downe House School and was its head for nearly forty years, from 1907 to 1946.
Early life
Willis was born in 1877 at 65 Thistl ...
had also studied at Somerville College.)
Anne sat her finals in 1942 and then took up a position in
operational research
Operations research ( en-GB, operational research) (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a discipline that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve deci ...
for the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
.
After the war she returned to Oxford and was awarded her
MA in 1946.
She undertook research at
Lady Margaret Hall under the guidance of
J. H. C. Whitehead who knew her as a family friend.
Her first paper in
homological algebra (''Some algebraic properties of crossed modules'') was published in 1951 and she earned her
DPhil
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
for her thesis ''Modern Algebraic Theories'' in 1952.
Cobbe became lecturer at Lady Margaret Hall and published ''On the
cohomology groups
In mathematics, specifically in homology theory and algebraic topology, cohomology is a general term for a sequence of abelian groups, usually one associated with a topological space, often defined from a cochain complex. Cohomology can be viewe ...
of a
finite group'' in 1955. She returned to Somerville the same year, where she was appointed as a fellow and tutor.
She enjoyed carefully looking after the gardens of Somerville College and preferred tutoring algebra there – with tea and biscuits, rather than lecturing. In 1957, she published ''On Q-kernels with operators'', a joint paper with Robert Leroy Taylor.
Later life
Cobbe became gravely ill in 1969, a year after interviewing
Caroline Series for her admission to Somerville.
She gave up her positions as Fellow and Tutor in April 1971, however in the absence of a replacement she continued to offer support and advice until the time of her death in December. She gifted her house in
Walton Street through her will to Somerville, on the condition that
philosopher Philippa Foot would be granted life tenure.
Jane Bridge, whom she had tutored at Somerville, became her successor as mathematics tutor at Somerville after her death.
In 1972, Somerville College established the Anne Cobbe Memorial Fund with contributions from her friends, colleagues and pupils. The purpose of this fund is to provide opportunities for undergraduates reading mathematics, physics or engineering.
References
Sources
*
I. W. Busbridge,
Obituary – Anne Philippa Cobbe, Bull London Math. Soc. 5 (1973), 358–360. https://doi.org/10.1112/blms/5.3.358
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cobbe, Anne
20th-century British mathematicians
British women mathematicians
Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford
Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford
1920 births
1971 deaths
20th-century women mathematicians