Stewart Cockburn | |
|---|---|
| Born | Alexander Stewart Cockburn 1921 Adelaide, South Australia |
| Died | 2009 (aged 87–88) |
| Occupation(s) | Journalist, author |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 4 |
| Parents |
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| Awards | Walkley Award (1972, Best newspaper feature story) |
Alexander Stewart CockburnAM (1921–2009) was an Australian journalist, commentator, and author fromAdelaide,South Australia.
Alexander Stewart Cockburn was born in 1921.[1] He was the only child of journalistRodney Cockburn and his second wife, Ruby Ethel, née Adams. (Her first husband, Lieut. Melville Farmer, was killed in action in the First World War.) Cockburn was about to turn eleven years old when his father died.[citation needed]
Educated atScotch College, Adelaide, he left school at sixteen after earning his Leaving Certificate.[citation needed]
Cockburn began working as acopy boy[2] forThe Advertiser in 1938, and started his reporter cadetship late in 1940. During the war years he was one of the few young men working as a reporter atThe Advertiser, as he had been rejected as medically unfit after volunteering for service with theRoyal Australian Navy: he hadtubercular scars on his lungs, the affliction that had decimated his father's family. (He was accredited as one of threeAdvertiser war correspondents for the Pacific region in 1943,[3] but did not obtain the paper's approval for this work. He was needed on the short-staffed paper in Adelaide. While still a cadet reporter, Cockburn obtained valuable early experience in theCanberra Press Gallery on behalf of the paper.[citation needed]
He transferred to the associated MelbourneHerald in 1945, after the war ended. For a time he worked as aHerald correspondent inCanberra and inLondon for theHerald andReuters news agency. While in London he came to the attention of then-Liberal Opposition LeaderRobert Menzies.[2]
He was personally selected by Prime Minister Menzies in 1951 as hispress secretary,[4] and accompanied the P.M. on his 1952 official visit to London andWashington.[5]He accompanied Menzies and his family to London in 1953 for theCoronation of Elizabeth II. Soon after his return he took three months' sick leave and then resigned from the press secretary position due to a flare-up of his dormant Tuberculosis. He wrote about his three year experience in a series of articles inThe Bulletin.[6] and forThe Herald.[7] His replacement, Hugh Dash, served as Menzies' press secretary until 1960, when he unexpectedly died.[8]
Cockburn returned toThe Advertiser in early 1954 as a special feature writer. During the 1950s he also became a regular radio news commentator on 5AD and was a member of theMeet the Press panel on TV ChannelADS7. Between 1955 and 1983, except when living interstate or overseas, he was the South Australian correspondent forThe Canberra Times.[citation needed]
Cockburn covered the 1959 Royal Commission into the trial of Aboriginal murdererRupert Maxwell Stuart largely instigated by campaigning journalistRohan Rivett. Unlike Rivett, Cockburn was convinced of Stuart's guilt.[2]
From 1961 to 1963 he worked aspress attaché to theAustralian Embassy in Washington. He resigned and returned to Australia andThe Advertiser after voicing his doubts about the veracity of a public statement made by the Australian ambassador.[2]
In 1964 he read the evening news bulletin onADS7, the TV station then associated withThe Advertiser.[2] Cockburn continued as senior feature writer atThe Advertiser and resumed his radio commentaries on5AD and also5AN (ABC). After participating in a journalists' strike in 1967, Cockburn left journalism for several years. He and his family moved to Canberra, where he was partner in a news agency service.[citation needed]
Cockburn returned to journalism andThe Advertiser in 1971. In addition to feature writing, he wrote opinion columns and was a leader (editorial) writer.[citation needed]
Towards the end of 1971 Cockburn investigated the company behindHoliday Magic cosmetics, and showed how a small number of operators profited enormously from the aspirations of a large number of agents,[2] a classicpyramid scheme.[9] His series of articles earned him a nationalWalkley Award for the best newspaper feature story in 1972.[10]
In January 1979 Cockburn received a letter written in jail by inmate Edward Splatt, protesting his innocence of the 1977 murder of 77-year-old Rosa Amelia Simper. Cockburn's crusade on Splatt's behalf led to the then longestRoyal Commission (1983–1984) in SA history, with Michael AbbottQC representing Splatt, and led to an overturned verdict, release in October 1984, and monetary compensation for Splatt.[11]
In 1979 Cockburn publishedThe Salisbury Affair on the sacking by premierDon Dunstan ofSouth Australian Police Commissioner,Harold Salisbury. The book sold well and its release was closely followed by the defeat of the state Labor government underDes Corcoran in September 1979, Dunstan having retired in February.[citation needed]
He followed this success with biographies ofSir Mark Oliphant, nuclear scientist andGovernor of South Australia 1971–1976 (with David Ellyard) and of South Australian PremierSir Thomas Playford, with assistance from John Playford (1935–2003), a distant relative (seeFamily of Thomas Playford I). The Oliphant biography won the historical and biographical section of the SA Government 1982 biennial prize for literature.[citation needed]
Cockburn published a revised edition of his father's book on South Australian placenames asWhat's in a name?, criticised byGeoff Manning, author of a similar publication, for its errors and omissions.[citation needed]
Cockburn donated a substantial collection of ephemera related to his career, including several scrapbooks, to theUniversity of Adelaide which includes audio cassettes, letters and press clippings.[1]
Cockburn married Beatrice Ferguson (from Tasmania) in England in 1947.[14] They had four children, Carol, Jenny, Kirsty and Malcolm.[15]
Beatrice died in 1986, and he later married former politicianJennifer Cashmore, becoming step-father to her two daughters,NSW Supreme Court judgeChristine Adamson and former diplomat and later governor of South AustraliaFrances Adamson.[16][clarification needed]
Cockburn died in 2009.[1]
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