away match without fouling of which there is any record. As an oarsman his achievements were numerous. With J. Phelps he beat W. Pocock and J. Doubledee. He was stroke in the winning four at the Liverpool regatta in 1840, winning against five crews. On 8 Sept. 1842 he beat R. Nowell, Westminster to Putney, for 50l. a side; in the following month they rowed again, when Coombes was again the better man, and was presented with a piece of plate in commemoration of his victories. At Newcastle-on-Tyne, 18 Dec. 1844, he staked 100l. to 50l. and was the winner in a sculling match with H. Clasper. He became the champion of the Thames on 19 Aug. 1846, beating C. Campbell easily. He held the championship longer, and rowed the course, Putney to Mortlake, faster, than any other man of his time; but on 24 May 1852, when aged forty-three, although backed at 2½ to 1 for 200l. a side, he was beaten by Thomas Cole, a man half his age, by half a length, in a race lasting 29 minutes 12 seconds, one of the most perfectly contested races ever witnessed. With Wilson he won the pairs at the Thames Regatta in 1845, and with his brother, Tom Coombes, beat Richard and Harry Clasper in a match on the Thames in 1847. As a trainer he was employed by the Cambridge crew in 1852, and in the same year his name is found in connection with a book bearing the following title, ‘Aquatic Notes, or Sketches of the Rise and Progress of Racing at Cambridge; by a Member of the C.U.B.C., with a Letter containing hints on Rowing and Training by Robert Coombes, champion sculler,’ 1852, 12mo. Although he was sometimes defeated in pair and four oar races, yet he and his crews always came off with credit and stoutly contested the victories with their opponents. In speed and style during his time he was never surpassed, and he rowed many more races than any other man except H. Clasper. After an honourable career, in his later days he fell into poverty. His mind failed, and he was removed nine months before his death to the Kent lunatic asylum at Maidstone, where he died on 25 Feb. 1860, and was buried at the expense of his friends in Brompton cemetery on 7 March, when the leading London watermen followed his remains to the grave.
[Illustrated London News, 29 May 1852, p. 436, with portrait; Field, 3 March 1860, p. 176; Bell's Life in London, 23 Aug. 1846, p. 8, 4 March 1860, p. 6.]
COOMBES, WILLIAM HENRY, D.D. (1767–1850), catholic divine, was born at Meadgate in the parish of Camerton, Somersetshire, on 8 May 1767. At the age of twelve he was sent to Douay College, where he was ordained priest in 1791. During the troubles consequent on the French revolution he and several of his fellow-collegians with difficulty escaped to England. Soon afterwards he was appointed professor of divinity at Old Hall Green. On 12 Dec. 1801 Pope Pius VII created him D.D. In 1810 he accepted the mission of Shepton Mallett, Somersetshire, which he held for thirty-nine years. In 1849 he retired to the Benedictine monastery at Downside, where he died on 15 Nov. 1850. Coombes, who was an accomplished Greek scholar, published: 1. ‘Sacred Eloquence; or, Discourses selected from the Writings of St. Basil the Great and St. John Chrysostom, with the Letters of St. Eucherius to his kinsman, Valerian, on the Contempt of the World,’ Lond. 1798, 8vo. 2. ‘The Escape from France of the Rev. W. H. Coombes, written by himself, with his Letter on the generous behaviour of the Duke of York to some of the students of Douay who escaped from Doulens,’ Lond. 1799, 8vo. Printed also in ‘The Laity's Directory for the Church Service’ (1800). 3. Letters on catholic affairs under the signature of ‘The British Observer,’ which appeared in Cobbett's ‘Register’ in 1804–6. 4. ‘Life of St. Francis of Sales,’ translated from the French of Marsollier, 2 vols. Shepton Mallett, 1812, 8vo. 5. ‘The Spiritual Entertainments of St. Francis de Sales, with an addition of some Sacred Poems,’ Taunton, 1814, 12mo, translated from the French. 6. ‘The Essence of Religious Controversy,’ Lond. 1827 and 1839, 8vo. 7. ‘Life of St. Jane Frances de Chantal,’ 2 vols. Lond. 1830, and again 1847, 8vo.
[Oliver's Catholic Religion in Cornwall, p. 272; Gillow's Bibl. Dict. i. 558; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.]
COOPER, ABRAHAM (1787–1868), battle and animal painter, was born in Red Lion Street, Holborn, London, 8 Sept. 1787. His father was a tobacconist and afterwards an innkeeper in Holloway, and at one time at Edmonton. At the age of thirteen he found some employment as an assistant at Astley's Theatre. At this period the lad was fond of drawing animals, and produced several portraits of horses for a Mr. Phillips. When he was about twenty-two years of age there was a favourite horse in the possession of Mr. Henry (afterwards Sir Henry) Meux of Ealing. Cooper desired to have a portrait of this horse, but could not afford to pay for it, and when a friend remarked, ‘Why not try your own hand on old “Frolic”?’ Cooper set to work, and having finished a picture, he showed it
