Robert Cocks

Robert joined Locate International in October 2022 and became a member of the Operational Assessment and Review (OAR) Team shortly afterwards.

He qualified as a doctor in 1981 and then trained as a specialist in Accident and Emergency Medicine in London and Manchester. His first Consultant/Senior Lecturer post was at the Hammersmith Hospital, right next door to HM Wormwood Scrubs prison. In 1995, Robert was appointed as Professor of A&E Medicine in Hong Kong and has conducted a wide variety of medical research during his career, including studies on the human immune response to traumatic injury, wound ballistics, and transport accident investigation (air, rail, and road).

In 2002, Robert completed additional training in Aviation Medicine and practised in this specialty until he retired from full-time medical practice in 2021. He continues to teach Emergency Medicine part-time in London and Hong Kong.

In 2023, Robert started a new Medical Practitioners Group, open to any Locate volunteer with a healthcare background. The group’s members include nurses, doctors, paramedics, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and medical scientists. This group provides assistance to any of the teams needing help with interpreting medical matters encountered during investigations.

Robert joined Locate because of a long-standing interest in people who die and remain unidentified and unclaimed (often after suicide) and in the reasons why (and the fate of) people who go missing from hospital. He believes that events like these have lasting effects on the families of the missing, and he is committed to playing a part in alleviating their distress, if only by providing closure and reassurance that everything possible has been done.