Anne Cocker
Scottish rose breeder
Anne Cocker (born Anne Gowen Rennis; 25 May 1920 – 21 November 2014) was a Scottish rose breeder from Aberdeen, Scotland. Cocker and her husband, Alexander Morison Cocker, were owners of the nursery, James Cocker & Sons. From the 1960s to the 2000s, the Cockers introduced more than 100 new rose varieties. Cocker continued to breed roses until her eighties, winning multiple horticultural awards.
Early life
Cocker was born on 25 May 1920, in a tenement in Aberdeen, Scotland, the daughter of John and Barbara Rennie. Her father worked as a granite mason and draughtsman. Cocker attended Aberdeen Grammar School, while also working at Milne's licensed grocers. After graduating from school, she was hired full-time at the grocers. At the beginning of World War II, Cocker joined the Civil Defence Service, serving as an ambulance driver. Through her volunteer work, she met Alexander Morrison Cocker, a fellow Civil Defense Service volunteer, and the owner of James Cocker & Sons, an Aberdeen nursery.
“Anne Cocker” enters the record as scottish rose breeder. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Anne, Cocker and Scottish can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Anne Cocker” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.