William Albert Cobb was a consultant neurophysiologist at the National Hospital, London. He was born in Margate, the son of Leonard Munro Cobb, a shopkeeper, and Edith Mary née Bullock, the daughter of a merchant. He was educated at Dauntsey's School and then went on to Bart's to study medicine, qualifying in 1936. From 1938 to 1939 he was a resident anaesthetist at King George's Hospital, Ilford, and West London Hospital.

During the second world war he was an anaesthetist and electro-encephalographer with the Emergency Medical Service at the Head Injuries Hospital, Haywards Heath.

After the war, he was an honorary anaesthetist at the National Hospital. In 1948, at the start of the NHS, he was appointed there as a clinical neurophysiologist. He wrote papers on electro-encephalography.

He married Hilda Leonore Hooper, the daughter of a South African MP, in 1941 and they had a daughter (Carol) and two sons (Crispin and Stephen). He was married for a second time, to Lorn.

RCP editor