Peter Cochrane (British Army officer)

James Aikman 'Peter' Cochrane, DSO, MC (12 May 1919 – 5 December 2015) was a Scottish soldier who was awarded the Military Cross and the Distinguished Service Order during the Second World War.

On 22 October, during the start of the Western Desert Campaign, he and his men were ordered to test the strength of the enemy in a raid on an Italian position near Sidi Barrani.

On his return to Company HQ with his small group he was recommended for and received a Military Cross for "coolness, resource and initiative under fire beyond praise" in that action.

On 3 February 1941, Cochrane, still only a second lieutenant, commanded two platoons that succeeded in taking a piece of high ground, later known as "Cameron Ridge", that was required to direct forward artillery fire.

In what The Glasgow Herald described as a "lone attack", Cochrane destroyed two Italian machine gun positions single-handedly with grenades, killing the 13 occupants.

[citation needed] Asmara was liberated on 8 April when the 5th Indian Infantry Division took the city, unable to walk, he was again the object of a surgical operation, but this time by a British doctor.

In Washington DC he met his wife-to-be, Louise Booth Morley of the International Student Service (ISS) who was organising the visit.

When the 4th Battalion, Cameron Highlanders, Territorial Army (TA) unit, was renumbered as the 2nd QOCH, Cochrane, now a major,[5] was appointed CO of "C" or ("Charlie") Company.

[2] In January 1944, by now a battalion commander, he landed at Taranto in Italy and fought in the Fourth and final Battle of Monte Cassino, that drove the Germans out of that country.

And from India he was posted as a General Staff Officer Grade 2 (GSO2) to the HQ of Allied Land Forces South East Asia (ALFSEA) at Calcutta.

Cochrane took a course in printing and left Chatto in 1952, then to join the Somerset printers, Butler & Tanner, at first in London and then in their Head Office at Frome, where he worked until his retirement in 1979.

[2] After his retirement, Cochrane and his wife moved to Edinburgh where he served on the literary committee of the Scottish Arts Council, and lectured on printing at Napier College.