Peter Cozens

Biography

Peter Cozens lived much of his adult life in Blackheath, London in a large late 19th century manorial house with his mother, Winifred Cozens. His elder brother by three years, Henry Iliffe Cozens, CB, latterly Deputy Chief of Staff, Air Training, and Vice-President of the British Schools Exploring Society, earned early renown in the R.A.F. for filming 'Northern Lights', about the 1930 British Arctic Air Route Expedition to Greenland, receiving the Polar Medal. From 1938 the brother was Commanding Officer, 19 squadron, based at RAF Duxford, the first squadron to take delivery of the new Spitfire; he later, while on active service flying Lancaster bombers, shot 'Night Bombers' (BBC, 1978), unique for its use of color. Peter Cozens showed talent as a bit-part character actor, taking parts in comedy films, notably amusingly irate cameo roles with Norman Wisdom. A kindly, benign, possibly slightly lonely man, sometimes moody and intense, he conversely could display considerable warmth in company. He also had latterly a humorous fondness for 'smart' cars, progressing from an R.A.F. (or metallic) blue postwar Flying Standard to a full-scale Brown and Cream Rolls-Royce or Bentley which he displayed proudly on the gravel front drive.