Stewart Cockburn


Alexander Stewart Cockburn was an Australian journalist, commentator, and author from Adelaide, South Australia.

Early life and education

Alexander Stewart Cockburn was born in 1921. He was the only child of journalist Rodney Cockburn and his second wife, Ruby Ethel, née Adams. Cockburn was about to turn eleven years old when his father died.
Educated at Scotch College, Adelaide, he left school at sixteen after earning his Leaving Certificate.

Career

Cockburn began working as a copy boy for The 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 at The Advertiser, as he had been rejected as medically unfit after volunteering for service with the Royal Australian Navy: he had tubercular scars on his lungs, the affliction that had decimated his father's family.. 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.
Cockburn returned to journalism and The Advertiser in 1971. In addition to feature writing, he wrote opinion columns and was a leader writer.
Towards the end of 1971 Cockburn investigated the company behind Holiday Magic cosmetics, and showed how a small number of operators profited enormously from the aspirations of a large number of agents, a classic pyramid scheme. His series of articles earned him a national Walkley Award for the best newspaper feature story in 1972.
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 longest Royal Commission in SA history, with Michael Abbott QC representing Splatt, and led to an overturned verdict, release in October 1984, and monetary compensation for Splatt.
In 1979 Cockburn published The Salisbury Affair on the sacking by premier Don Dunstan of South Australian Police Commissioner, Harold Salisbury. The book sold well and its release was closely followed by the defeat of the state Labor government under Des Corcoran in September 1979, Dunstan having retired in February.
He followed this success with biographies of Sir Mark Oliphant, nuclear scientist and Governor of South Australia 1971–1976 and of South Australian Premier Sir Thomas Playford, with assistance from John Playford, a distant relative. The Oliphant biography won the historical and biographical section of the SA Government 1982 biennial prize for literature.
Cockburn published a revised edition of his father's book on South Australian placenames as What's in a name?, criticised by Geoff Manning, author of a similar publication, for its errors and omissions.
Cockburn donated a substantial collection of ephemera related to his career, including several scrapbooks, to the University of Adelaide which includes audio cassettes, letters and press clippings.

Recognition

  • Robert Menzies dubbed him "Atlas", for "always having the worries of the world on his shoulders"
  • He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in the 1995 Australia Day Honours "for service to journalism and literature"
  • Cockburn received two Walkley Awards: in 1972, for the best newspaper feature story, a five-part series of articles on Holiday Magic, a pyramid selling company; and in 1982, a commendation for his series of articles on the Splatt case.

    Personal life

Cockburn married Beatrice Ferguson in England in 1947. They had four children, Carol, Jenny, Kirsty and Malcolm.
Beatrice died in 1986, and he later married former politician Jennifer Cashmore, becoming step-father to her two daughters, NSW Supreme Court judge Christine Adamson and former diplomat and later governor of South Australia Frances Adamson.
Cockburn died in 2009.