The Cobbold family are inextricably linked with Ipswich Town Football Club. Ivan, John and Patrick as Chairmen are the most well known. Lady Blanche Cobbold to a lesser extent. In the mid-Sixties, she became the first female president of a British professional football club eight-seven years after Thomas Clement Cobbold had become the fledgling clubs very first (male) president in 1878.
Although there is no record of his having played for Town, Thomas’s brother William “Nut” Cobbold was almost certainly one of Suffolk’s first natives to represent England, doing so on nine occasions between 1883 and 1887. He scored six international goals in total including two on his debut in a 7-0 trouncing of Ireland.
His first competitive club games were for his home village of Long Melford, and as well as representing his country he played for Cambridge University (he was the Blue’s Captain in 1885 and 1886), Old Carthusian and Corinthians.
In the 1885 England team photo shown above he is in the back row second from the left.
Further details here.
