Jane Gransden

  General Notes:

Mrs Jane Cocking, of Prospect Hill
road, East Camberwell, Victoria who
on Thursday last celebrated her 100th
birthday, was born in the year after
the battle of Waterloo, and conse
quently has lived under five British
sovereigns. Mrs Cocking is the widow
of the late Mr Samuel Cocking, of the
Public Works Department, to whom
she was married in 1844, and four
years later they came with three chil
dren to Australia. In spite of her
great age, Mrs Cocking enjoys excel
lent health, and, excepting that she is
slightly deaf, she has all her faculties.
In her girlhood she was in touch with
many wellknown naval people at
Portsmouth, and she remembers seeing
Queen Victoria as a young Princess,
with her mother, the Duchess cf -Kent.
At this time the Princess was 15 years
old, and Mrs Cocking was 17. An
other vivid memory is that of William
IV. opening London Bridge. Mrs
Cocking heard the guns which, an
nounced the birth of King Edward,
and she once met the Duke of Wel
lington. Mrs Cocking has received
the congratulations of her friends on
having attained so great an age in
pleasant circumstances.
1916 'PERSONAL', Daily Telegraph (Launceston, Tas. : 1883 - 1928), 19 December, p. 4. , viewed 07 Apr 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article152740523

Mrs Jane Cocking, of Camberwell, Vic-
toria, celebrated her 100th birthday on Decem-
ber 13. She received many congratulations
from friends throughout the Commonwealth
Mrs Cocking was born at West Malling, Kent,
in 1810 She married in 1841, and four years
later she came out to Adelaide with her late
husband, an architect by profession He
subsequently joined the Public Works Depart-
ment of Victoria. Of the children of the
marriage only two survive, viz, Mr Bingley
Cocking (who, for over 30 years has man-
aged Callubri Station, Dandaloo River,
NSW), and Miss Thyra Cocking who con-
ducts a prlvate school at Camberwell Mis
Cocking is the daughter of a British naval
officer, Captain Gransden. As a girl of 17 she
had the privilege of being presented to Queen
Victoria (then Princess Victoria), on the oc-
casion of a ' field duy ' at Woolwich Not-
withstanding her great age Mrs Cocking is
physically and mentally active, and converses
With marvellous accuracy regarding her many
experiences She never wore spectacles, and
until two years ago her vision was so little
Fix this textImpaired that she could thread a needle.
1916 'MELBOURNE NOTES.', The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), 20 December, p. 5. , viewed 07 Apr 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15699903