Alan Cobcroft
Member of the Legislative Council
In office
1932–1935
Personal details
BornSydney, New South Wales
Died5 September 1955 (aged 70)
Auckland, New Zealand
ProfessionPlanter

Alan Ridge Cobcroft (died 5 September 1955) was a Western Samoan planter and politician.

Biography

Cobcroft was the son of parents from the Sydney suburb of Summer Hill.[1] He attended Sydney Grammar School and represented the school in football, rowing and running.[1] He also played for Newtown in the Sydney Rugby Premiership as a full-back. After leaving school, he moved to Fiji in 1907 to work on the sugar plantations of C.S.R.[2][1] He moved to Western Samoa in 1911 to manage Papaseea Plantations, and became manager of the Mulifanua Coconut Plantation during World War I.[1] After a brief stint working in the Territory of New Guinea, he returned to Western Samoa and established his own cocoa plantation.[1] He became President of the Planters Association and Vice President of Apia Turf Club.[1]

Cobcroft contested the 1932 elections to the Legislative Council with the support of the Chamber of Commerce and the Planters' Association. He was elected alongside his brother-in-law Irving Carruthers.[1] He unexpectedly lost his seat in the 1935 elections, receiving the fewest votes of the four candidates running for the two seats.[3] The following year he was amongst the founders of the United Progressive Party, becoming its first chairman.[4]

He died on 5 September 1955 in Auckland at the age of 70.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Samoan elections Pacific Islands Monthly, December 1932, pp38–39
  2. ↑ Football Sunday Times, 17 March 1907
  3. ↑ Samoan election Auckland Star, 21 November 1935
  4. ↑ Planters' concern Auckland Star, 30 October 1936
  5. ↑ Deaths of islands people Pacific Islands Monthly, September 1955, p141
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