History of Great Yarmouth and Gorleston-on-Sea
Edmund Hazell Cockrill
Edmund Hazell Cockrill
Edmund was born on Monday 6th November 1880. In 1894, at the age of fourteen, Ted was apprenticed to his father for seven years as a carpenter, joiner and draughtsman. Almost immediately upon the completion of his Indenture, he, like his brother Harold, joined up to serve in the Boer War but he arrived in South Africa after peace had been declared. He stayed in South Africa for a while with relatives, probably the Fisher family who were relatives of his mother. From South Africa he went to Cuba. Following a severe earthquake in Jamaica he moved to the island working as a civil engineer rebuilding bridges. He eventually established a life for himself in Santa Marta, Republic of Colombia working with a Captain Brown.
He returned to England for the Great War in 1914. He served abroad for much of the following three and a half years, including in the Gallipoli Campaign. 'Bina' his wife, served in Queen Alexandra's Nursing Corps.
After the war, in 1919, he returned to Santa Marta working for the British Railway Company. He was also Agent for many shipping agencies including Ffyfes the banana merchants. He also became Harbour Master, Lloyd's Agent, and British Vice-Consul in 1945. He owned a mine producing magnesium silicate from which talcum powder is manufactured. He also purchased a small island bird sanctuary with the unfulfilled ambition of shipping all the guano back to Britain. Whilst out there he and 'Bina' lived the lives of typical Colonial expatriates with a beautiful house, servants and lots of entertaining.
Whilst he was in Central America Ted became affected by an obscure tropical disease and in 1956 he returned to Britain for treatment. After a fruitless round of many hospitals he returned to live in a small bungalow on Elmhurst Estate, Gorleston, to finish his days. He died after a fall at home, on Tuesday 8th January 1957.
