Background
Ralph Cobbold was born in Ipswich, the second son of the Ipswich Member of Parliament John Patteson Cobbold.
Ralph Cobbold was born in Ipswich, the second son of the Ipswich Member of Parliament John Patteson Cobbold.
Eton College.
He explored the Pamirs in 1897–1898. His report on Russian plans to occupy Chitral was an important episode in the Great Game between the Russian and British empires. In his 1900 book about his travels through the Pamirs, Cobbold wrote " “My original object in visiting the Pamir region of Central Asia was that of a sportsman, and I had no idea of either troubling myself with inquiries into the social and political conditions of the people", but in actuality Cobbold was an agent in the British government and was ordered to travel through the Pamirs.
Cobbold"s first marriage was to Minnie Diana Pitt, with whom he had a son, Ralph Hamilton Cobbold.