Anne Cobbe

{{short description|British mathematician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox academic | honorific_prefix =  | name = Anne Cobbe | honorific_suffix = | image = Anne Cobbe 1939.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Anne Philippa Cobbe, Matriculation photograph 1939, Somerville College, Oxford | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name =  | birth_date = {{birth date|1920|8|7|df=yes}} | birth_place = Sharnbrook | death_date = {{death date and age|1971|12|15|1920|8|7|df=yes}} | death_place = Oxford | death_cause = | region = | nationality = | citizenship = | residence = | other_names = | occupation = | period = | known_for = | title = | boards =  | spouse = | children = | parents = {{Unbulleted list|Sir Alexander Cobbe|Winifred Ada Bowen}} | relatives = | awards =  | website = | education = | alma_mater = Somerville College, Oxford | thesis_title = Modern Algebraic Theories | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | school_tradition = | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = J. H. C. Whitehead | influences =  | era = | discipline = Mathematics | sub_discipline = Homological algebra  | workplaces = Somerville College, Oxford | doctoral_students =  | notable_students = Jane Bridge Kister | main_interests = | notable_works = | notable_ideas = | influenced =  | signature = | signature_alt = | signature_size = | footnotes = }} '''Anne Philippa Cobbe''' (7 August 1920 – 15 December 1971) was a mathematician at the University of Oxford. She was an inspirational and supportive pure mathematics tutor at Somerville College which, during her time there, was still a women's college.

==Early life== Anne was born in Sharnbrook, Bedfordshire, youngest child of General Alexander Cobbe (member of the Cobbe family) and Winifred Ada Bowen.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Cobbe.html|title=Cobbe biography|author1=J. J. O'Connor|author2=E. F. Robertson|publisher=University of St Andrews|access-date=28 August 2018}}</ref> Her mother was the daughter of Sir Albert Bowen, 1st Baronet, lord of Colworth House, where Anne grew up. She had a sister, Winifred Alice (born 1912) and brother, Alexander William Locke (born 1919). Her father died when she was ten. Her brother, known as Bill, was killed as an RAF pilot in the Battle of Britain in 1940.<ref name=":0" />

==Education and career== She attended Downe House School near Newbury, Berkshire. She started reading mathematics in the Sixth form but sat the history scholarship examinations at the University of Oxford 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.<ref name=":0" /> (Her head teacher Olive Willis had also studied at Somerville College.)

Anne sat her finals in 1942 and then took up a position in operational research for the Royal Navy.<ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref name=":0" /> Her first paper in homological algebra (''Some algebraic properties of crossed modules'') was published in 1951 and she earned her DPhil for her thesis ''Modern Algebraic Theories'' in 1952.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet/MRAuthorID/426772|title=Cobbe, Anne Philippa|website=MathSciNet|access-date=28 August 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=7767|title=A. P. Cobbe|website=Mathematics Genealogy Project|access-date=28 August 2018}}</ref>

Cobbe became a lecturer at Lady Margaret Hall and published ''On the cohomology groups of a finite group'' in 1955. She returned to Somerville the same year, where she was appointed as a fellow and tutor.<ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://zbmath.org/authors/?s=0&q=Cobbe%2C+Anne|title=Cobbe, Anne P.|website=Zentralblatt MATH|access-date=28 August 2018}}</ref>

==Later life== Cobbe became gravely ill in 1969, a year after interviewing Caroline Series for her admission to Somerville.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://europeanwomeninmaths.org/sites/default/files/documents/portraits/ima_-mathematics-today.pdf|title=Interview with Professor Caroline Series|last=|first=|date=2007|website=European Women in Maths|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303215727/http://europeanwomeninmaths.org/sites/default/files/documents/portraits/ima_-mathematics-today.pdf|archive-date=3 March 2016|url-status=dead|access-date=28 August 2018}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Murdoch|first1=Iris|last2=Horner|first2=Avril|last3=Rowe|first3=Anne|title=Living on Paper: Letters from Iris Murdoch, 1934–1995|date=2016|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton, New Jersey|isbn=9780691170565|author-link1=Iris Murdoch}}</ref> Jane Bridge, whom she had tutored at Somerville, became her successor as mathematics tutor at Somerville after her death.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://issuu.com/somervillecollege/docs/somerville_college_report_2020_-_online/s/11635180|title=Jane Elizabeth Kister (Bridge, 1963)|department=Obituaries|magazine=Somerville College Report|year=2019–2020|via=Issuu.com}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.some.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/By-laws-edited-by-JE-2011.2.10.pdf|title=Somerville College Oxford - By-laws|page=27|date=June 2008|access-date=28 August 2018|publisher=Somerville College}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Sources== * I. W. Busbridge, [https://academic.oup.com/blms/article-abstract/5/3/358/289540?redirectedFrom=PDF Obituary – Anne Philippa Cobbe, Bull]. London Math. Soc. 5 (1973), 358–360. https://doi.org/10.1112/blms/5.3.358

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cobbe, Anne}} Category:20th-century British mathematicians Category:British women mathematicians Category:Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Category:Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford Category:1920 births Category:1971 deaths Anne Category:20th-century British women mathematicians