Alexander Stewart Cockburn

Alexander Stewart Cockburn, better known as Stewart Cockburn, was born in Adelaide on 16 October 1921 to British parents Rodney and Ruby Cockburn (née Adams).¹

An esteemed journalist and author, Stewart Cockburn first began his career writing for The Advertiser newspaper in Adelaide in 1938, later working as a reporter and feature writer for the Melbourne Herald and Reuters, London. Cockburn was appointed to Press Secretary to former Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies (1951 - 1953), and later Press Attaché to the Australian Embassy in Washington (1960 - 1963).

In 1979, Cockburn published his first book, The Salisbury Affair on the sacking of South Australian Police Commissioner, Harold Salisbury, followed by published biographies on South Australian Governor and nuclear scientist, Sir Mark Oliphant (with David Ellyard) in 1981, and long-serving South Australian Premier Sir Thomas Playford in 1991.

In 1981, Cockburn also wrote a series of newspaper articles raising doubts on the forensic evidence presented at the trial of Edward Splatt for the murder of Rosa Amelia Simper in 1978. The Splatt case generated great public interest, with further hearings and investigations, Splatt was pardoned following the Shannon Royal Commission into his case, being released August 1984.

Cockburn also published two compilations of profiles of prominent South Australians from his columns in The Advertiser: The Patriarchs in 1983, and Notable Lives in 1997.

Stewart Cockburn died 6 July 2009.

For Alexander Stewart Cockburn's Scrapbooks and Papers held by the University of Adelaide Library's Special Collections, click here.

References

1. National Archives of Australia. Series B4717 Item 30107302. "Cockburn, Alexander Stewart". Retrieved 16 March 2020. <https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=30107302&S=9>