Claud Cockburn: Difference between revisions

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'''Francis Claud Cockburn''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|oʊ|b|ər|n}} {{respell|KOH|bərn}}; 12 April 1904&nbsp;&ndash; 15 December 1981) was a British [[journalist]]. His saying "believe nothing until it has been officially denied" is widely quoted in journalistic studies,<ref>[[q:Claud Cockburn|Article in wikiquotes]]</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/pilgers-law-if-its-been-officially-denied-then-itrsquos-probably-true-959206.html|title=Pilger's law: 'If it's been officially denied, then it's probably true'|work=The Independent|date=12 October 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/claud_cockburn.html|title=Claud Cockburn Quotes|work=BrainyQuote}}</ref> but he did not claim credit for originating it.<ref>In his autobiography ''In Time of Trouble'', he refers to the phrase as advice he had "often heard" (London, 1957) p. 168.</ref> He was the second cousin, once removed, of the [[novelist]]s [[Alec Waugh]] and [[Evelyn Waugh]]. He lived at Brook Lodge, [[Youghal]], [[County Cork]], Ireland.<ref>Charles Mosley, editor, ''Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes'' (Wilmington, Delaware, US: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 120.</ref>
'''Francis Claud Cockburn''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|oʊ|b|ər|n}} {{respell|KOH|bərn}}; 12 April 1904&nbsp;&ndash; 15 December 1981) was a British [[journalist]]. His saying "believe nothing until it has been officially denied" is widely quoted in journalistic studies,<ref>[[q:Claud Cockburn|Article in wikiquotes]]</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/pilgers-law-if-its-been-officially-denied-then-itrsquos-probably-true-959206.html|title=Pilger's law: 'If it's been officially denied, then it's probably true'|work=The Independent|date=12 October 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/claud_cockburn.html|title=Claud Cockburn Quotes|work=BrainyQuote}}</ref> but he did not claim credit for originating it.<ref>In his autobiography ''In Time of Trouble'', he refers to the phrase as advice he had "often heard" (London, 1957) p. 168.</ref> He was the second cousin, once removed, of the [[novelist]]s [[Alec Waugh]] and [[Evelyn Waugh]]. He lived at Brook Lodge, [[Youghal]], [[County Cork]], Ireland.<ref>Charles Mosley, editor, ''Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes'' (Wilmington, Delaware, US: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 120.</ref>


In 1940 Cockburn's [[MI5|Security Service]] file said that "In 1939 he was a leading [[Communist Party of Great Britain|British Communist Party]] member and was said to be a leader of the [[Comintern]] in Western Europe".<ref name=MI5/>
In 1940, Cockburn's [[MI5|Security Service]] file said that "In 1939 he was a leading [[Communist Party of Great Britain|British Communist Party]] member and was said to be a leader of the [[Comintern]] in Western Europe".<ref name=MI5/>


==Early life==
==Early life==
Cockburn was born in Peking (present-day [[Beijing]]), China, on 12 April 1904, the son of [[Henry Cockburn (consul)|Henry Cockburn]], a British [[Consul (representative)|consul general]], and wife Elizabeth Gordon (née Stevenson). His paternal great-grandfather was Scottish judge/biographer [[Henry Cockburn, Lord Cockburn]].<ref>Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, US: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 120.</ref> Cockburn was educated at [[Berkhamsted Collegiate School|Berkhamsted School]], [[Berkhamsted]], [[Hertfordshire]], and [[Keble College, Oxford|Keble College]], [[University of Oxford|Oxford]], graduating with a [[Bachelor of Arts]]. At Oxford he was part of the [[Hypocrites' Club]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pincher|first1=Chapman|title=Treachery: Betrayals, Blunders, and Cover-ups: Six Decades of Espionage Against America and Great Britain|date=2009|publisher=Random House Publishing Group|page=27|isbn=9781588368591|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=netJI5stGlwC&pg=PA27}}</ref>
Cockburn was born in Peking (present-day [[Beijing]]), China, on 12 April 1904, the son of [[Henry Cockburn (consul)|Henry Cockburn]], a British [[Consul (representative)|consul general]], and wife Elizabeth Gordon (née Stevenson). His paternal great-grandfather was Scottish judge/biographer [[Henry Cockburn, Lord Cockburn]].<ref>Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, US: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 120.</ref> Cockburn was educated at [[Berkhamsted Collegiate School|Berkhamsted School]], [[Berkhamsted]], [[Hertfordshire]], and [[Keble College, Oxford|Keble College]], [[University of Oxford|Oxford]], graduating with a [[Bachelor of Arts]]. At Oxford he was part of the [[Hypocrites' Club]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pincher|first1=Chapman|title=Treachery: Betrayals, Blunders, and Cover-ups: Six Decades of Espionage Against America and Great Britain|date=2009|publisher=Random House Publishing Group|page=27|isbn=9781588368591|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=netJI5stGlwC&pg=PA27}}</ref> In 1927, Cockburn was elected to a Laming Travelling Fellowship at [[The Queen's College, Oxford]], which allowed him to travel in [[Austria]] and [[Germany]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cockburn |first=Patrick |title=Believe Nothing Until It Is Officially Denied. Claud Cockburn and the Invention of Guerrilla Journalism |publisher=Verso |year=2024 |isbn=9781804290743 |location=London |pages=52-8}}</ref>


==Journalist==
==Journalist==
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==Opposition to appeasement==
==Opposition to appeasement==
In the late 1930s Cockburn's ''The Week'' was highly critical of [[Neville Chamberlain]].<ref name=taww>Watt, Donald Cameron "Rumors as Evidence" pages 276-286 from ''Russia War, Peace and Diplomacy'' edited by Ljubica & Mark Erickson, London: [[Weidenfeld & Nicolson]], 2004 page 278.</ref> Cockburn said in the 1960s that much of the information in ''The Week'' had been leaked to him by [[Robert Vansittart, 1st Baron Vansittart|Sir Robert Vansittart]], [[Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs|Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office]].<ref name=taww/>
In the late 1930s, Cockburn's ''The Week'' was highly critical of [[Neville Chamberlain]].<ref name=taww>Watt, Donald Cameron "Rumors as Evidence" pages 276-286 from ''Russia War, Peace and Diplomacy'' edited by Ljubica & Mark Erickson, London: [[Weidenfeld & Nicolson]], 2004 page 278.</ref> Cockburn said in the 1960s that much of the information in ''The Week'' had been leaked to him by [[Robert Vansittart, 1st Baron Vansittart|Sir Robert Vansittart]], [[Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs|Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office]].<ref name=taww/>


At the same time, Cockburn said that the Security Service ([[MI5]]) was spying on him because of ''The Week'', but the British historian [[D. C. Watt]] argued that it was more likely that if anyone was spying on Cockburn, it was the police [[Special Branch (Metropolitan Police)|Special Branch]], which was less experienced in that work than MI5.<ref name=taww/> However, a 1940 Security Service file on Cockburn was later made public,<ref name=MI5/> and Claud's son Patrick Cockburn applied for his MI5 files and received 24 volumes of them.<ref name=campbell/> Cockburn was an opponent of [[appeasement]] before the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]]. In a 1937 article in ''The Week'', Cockburn coined the term "[[Cliveden set]]" to describe what he alleged to be an upper-class pro-German group that exercised influence behind the scenes. ''The Week'' ceased publication shortly after the war began.
At the same time, Cockburn said that the Security Service ([[MI5]]) was spying on him because of ''The Week'', but the British historian [[D. C. Watt]] argued that it was more likely that if anyone was spying on Cockburn, it was the police [[Special Branch (Metropolitan Police)|Special Branch]], which was less experienced in that work than MI5.<ref name=taww/> However, a 1940 Security Service file on Cockburn was later made public,<ref name=MI5/> and Claud's son Patrick Cockburn applied for his MI5 files and received 24 volumes of them.<ref name=campbell/> Cockburn was an opponent of [[appeasement]] before the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]]. In a 1937 article in ''The Week'', Cockburn coined the term "[[Cliveden set]]" to describe what he alleged to be an upper-class pro-German group that exercised influence behind the scenes. ''The Week'' ceased publication shortly after the war began.
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[[Category:British expatriates in China]]
[[Category:British expatriates in China]]
[[Category:British people of the Spanish Civil War]]
[[Category:British people of the Spanish Civil War]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Queen's College, Oxford]]

Latest revision as of 11:10, 19 June 2025

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Script error: No such module "infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Template:Main otherScript error: No such module "Check for clobbered parameters".Template:Wikidata image

Francis Claud Cockburn (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell; 12 April 1904 – 15 December 1981) was a British journalist. His saying "believe nothing until it has been officially denied" is widely quoted in journalistic studies,[1][2][3] but he did not claim credit for originating it.[4] He was the second cousin, once removed, of the novelists Alec Waugh and Evelyn Waugh. He lived at Brook Lodge, Youghal, County Cork, Ireland.[5]

In 1940, Cockburn's Security Service file said that "In 1939 he was a leading British Communist Party member and was said to be a leader of the Comintern in Western Europe".[6]

Early life

Cockburn was born in Peking (present-day Beijing), China, on 12 April 1904, the son of Henry Cockburn, a British consul general, and wife Elizabeth Gordon (née Stevenson). His paternal great-grandfather was Scottish judge/biographer Henry Cockburn, Lord Cockburn.[7] Cockburn was educated at Berkhamsted School, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, and Keble College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts. At Oxford he was part of the Hypocrites' Club.[8] In 1927, Cockburn was elected to a Laming Travelling Fellowship at The Queen's College, Oxford, which allowed him to travel in Austria and Germany.[9]

Journalist

He became a journalist with The Times and worked as a foreign correspondent in Germany and the United States before he resigned in 1933 to start his own newsletter, The Week. It has been said that during his spell as a sub-editor on The Times, Cockburn and colleagues competed (with a small prize for the winner) to write the dullest printed headline. Cockburn only once claimed[10] the honours, with "Small Earthquake in Chile, Not many dead". No copy of The Times featuring that headline has been located although it finally appeared decades after the recollection in Not the Times, a spoof version of the newspaper produced by several journalists at The Times in 1979 during the paper's year-long absence because of an industrial dispute.[11]

Spanish Civil War

Under the alias Frank Pitcairn,[6] Cockburn contributed to the British communist newspaper, the Daily Worker. In 1936, Harry Pollitt, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain, asked him to cover the Spanish Civil War. Cockburn joined the Fifth Regiment to report the war as a soldier. While in Spain, he published Reporter in Spain. According to the editor of a volume of his writings on Spain, Cockburn formed a personal relationship with Mikhail Koltsov, "then the foreign editor of Pravda and, in Cockburn's view, 'the confidant and mouthpiece and direct agent of Stalin in Spain'".

Cockburn's reporting in Spain, as "Frank Pitcairn", was heavily criticised by George Orwell in his 1938 memoir Homage to Catalonia.[12] Orwell accused Cockburn of being under the control of Stalinist handlers and was critical of Cockburn's depiction of the Barcelona May Days in which Orwell had taken part and during which anti-Stalinist communists and anarchists were caught and executed by operatives of the Soviet NKVD.[12] Specifically, to undermine anti-Stalinist factions on the Republican side, Cockburn falsely reported that the anti-Stalinist figurehead Andrés Nin, who had been tortured and executed by the NKVD,[13] was alive and well after escaping to fascist territory.Template:Sfn

According to writer Adam Hochschild, Cockburn functioned as Stalinist propagandist during the war "on [Communist] Party orders".Template:Sfn In one instance, Cockburn claimed to have been an eyewitness to a battle that he totally invented.Template:Sfn This hoax was intended to persuade the French prime minister that Francisco Franco's forces were weaker than they appeared and thus make the Republicans seem worthier candidates for help in obtaining arms. The ruse worked, and the French border was opened for a previously-stalled artillery shipment.[14]

Opposition to appeasement

In the late 1930s, Cockburn's The Week was highly critical of Neville Chamberlain.[15] Cockburn said in the 1960s that much of the information in The Week had been leaked to him by Sir Robert Vansittart, Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office.[15]

At the same time, Cockburn said that the Security Service (MI5) was spying on him because of The Week, but the British historian D. C. Watt argued that it was more likely that if anyone was spying on Cockburn, it was the police Special Branch, which was less experienced in that work than MI5.[15] However, a 1940 Security Service file on Cockburn was later made public,[6] and Claud's son Patrick Cockburn applied for his MI5 files and received 24 volumes of them.[16] Cockburn was an opponent of appeasement before the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. In a 1937 article in The Week, Cockburn coined the term "Cliveden set" to describe what he alleged to be an upper-class pro-German group that exercised influence behind the scenes. The Week ceased publication shortly after the war began.

Watt alleges that the information printed in The Week included rumours, some of which suited Moscow's interests.[17] Watt used as an example the claim The Week made in February–March 1939 that German troops were concentrating in Klagenfurt for an invasion of Yugoslavia, which Watt says had no basis in reality.[17]

Postwar

In 1947, Cockburn moved to Ireland and lived at Ardmore, County Waterford. He continued to contribute to newspapers and journals, including a weekly column for The Irish Times. There he famously stated, "Wherever there is a stink in international affairs, you will find that Henry Kissinger has recently visited".Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

Among his novels were Beat the Devil (originally under the pseudonym James Helvick), The Horses, Ballantyne's Folly,[18] and Jericho Road. Beat the Devil was made into a film in 1953 by the director John Huston, who paid Cockburn £3,000 for the rights to the book and screenplay. Cockburn collaborated with Huston on the early drafts of the script, but the credit went to Truman Capote.[19] The title was later used by Cockburn's son Alexander for his regular column in The Nation.

He published Bestseller, an exploration of English popular fiction, Aspects of English History (1957), The Devil's Decade (1973), his history of the 1930s and Union Power (1976).Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

His first volume of memoirs was published as In Time of Trouble (1956) in the United Kingdom and as A Discord of Trumpets in the United States. It was followed by Crossing the Line (1958), and A View from the West (1961). Revised, they were published by Penguin as I, Claud... in 1967. Again revised and shortened, with a new chapter, they were republished as Cockburn Sums Up shortly before he died.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

He also wrote Mr. Mintoff Comes to Ireland. The book was published in 1975 but set in 1980 when Dom Mintoff was Malta's Prime Minister and leader of the Malta Labour Party. The cover description describes it as a "shrewd assessment of how a small independent nation may best stand up to the so-called Great Powers".

Personal life

Marriages

Claud Cockburn married twice, and all of his wives and partners were also journalists.

Domestic partners

Descendants

Cockburn's three sons are all journalists: Alexander, who moved to the US, wrote for Village Voice, the Nation and CounterPunch; Andrew became the Washington editor of Harper'; Patrick also published a biography of his father.[16]

Cockburn's granddaughters include RadioNation host Laura Flanders, ex-BBC Economics editor Stephanie Flanders, and actress Olivia Wilde.[22]

Biography

Cockburn's son Patrick Cockburn published a biography of his father, Believe Nothing Until It Is Officially Denied: Claud Cockburn and the Invention of Guerrilla Journalism, in 2024.[16]

See also

References

Template:Reflist

External links

Template:Sister project

Template:Authority control

  1. ↑ Article in wikiquotes
  2. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  3. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  4. ↑ In his autobiography In Time of Trouble, he refers to the phrase as advice he had "often heard" (London, 1957) p. 168.
  5. ↑ Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, US: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 120.
  6. ↑ a b c Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, US: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 120.
  8. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  10. ↑ In his autobiography, "In Time of Trouble" (London, 1957), p.125.
  11. ↑ See New York magazine, 30 July 1979, p. 8. New York
  12. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  13. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  14. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  15. ↑ a b c Watt, Donald Cameron "Rumors as Evidence" pages 276-286 from Russia War, Peace and Diplomacy edited by Ljubica & Mark Erickson, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004 page 278.
  16. ↑ a b c Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  17. ↑ a b Watt, Donald Cameron "Rumors as Evidence" pages 276–286 from Russia War, Peace and Diplomacy edited by Ljubica & Mark Erickson, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004 page 283.
  18. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  19. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  20. ↑ Arbuthnot: Mrs. P. S-M. Arbuthnot, Memories of the Arbuthnots of Kincardineshire and Aberdeenshire (London, 1920), p. 311 Patricia married firstly on 10 October 1933 to Arthur Cecil Byron, son of Cecil Byron, divorcing in 1940,
  21. ↑ Template:Cite ODNB
  22. ↑ Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 120
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