BLAIR ONSLOW COCHRANE is probably the first person with strong County Durham and North Yorkshire links to win an Olympic Gold.
The official Olympic books say that he was born in 1853 in Darlington, but that is only where his birth was registered.
He was actually born in Monkend at Croft-on-Tees, and so in North Yorkshire, into a family of sailors. His great-grandfather, the 9th Earl of Dundonald, a Scottish aristocrat, lost nearly all the family fortune by ploughing it into his invention of coal tar which, he said, would waterproof ships to prevent rotting timbers.
The 9th Earl’s two sons, Thomas and Archibald, fought so heroically in the Mediterranean during the Napoleonic Wars that Napoleon nicknamed the oldest “Le Loup des Mers” – the Sea Wolf. The younger brother, Archibald, married Jane Mowbray of Sunderland, and they took up residence at Hetton Hall, at Hetton-le-Hole.
Jane’s famous family was behind the Hetton Coal Company, formed in 1819, in which Archibald invested, and his mother, Lady Cochrane, ceremonially cut the first sod of the mine and its pioneering railway.
One Jane and Archibald’s sons, Robert, lived at Monkend Hall, three miles south of Darlington, which was where Blair was born. How long he lived there, we don’t know – perhaps he had his first sailing experience on the Tees.
Monkend Hall, Croft, where Blair Cochrane was probably born.
Blair went to top schools in London, and married Mary Sutton, the daughter of Sir Richard Sutton, the 4th Baronet.
(In April 2021, the 9th Baronet, another Sir Richard Sutton, was stabbed to death by his partner’s son. Sir Richard, 83, whose property included the Sheraton Grand Park Lane hotel in London, was number 435 of the Sunday Times rich list, with a fortune of £301m.)
The Suttons had interests on the Isle of Wight, where Blair settled. He invented the first racing boat in the 1890s and became Rear Commodore of the Royal Victoria Yacht Club at Ryde. This club hosted the 1908 Olympic sailing events, which Blair organised and entered his own yacht, Cobweb, in the eight-metre class.
Aged 55, he was Cobweb’s helmsman, and he steered his four-man crew – which included two of his brothers-in-law – to gold.
He even received a gilt commemorative gold medal as he owned the winning boat.
During the First World War, Blair received an OBE for his work with the Royal Horse Artillery, and he died in 1928. Quite probably, he is North Yorkshire’s first medal-winning Olympian.
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