B64220 Corporal Alexander Cockburn was born in Dundee, Scotland, on 14 September 1914, the son of James Cockburn and Agnes Thorburn. He had three sisters and two brothers. Corporal James Cockburn was killed in Sicily with the 49th Highlanders in July 1943. He belonged to the Church of England.

Cockburn worked as a truck driver with Canada Coal Limited when he enlisted with the QOR on 21 June 1940. He trained with the Regiment in Newfoundland, New Brunswick and England. He was in the Support Company, Carrier Platoon, and went through Normandy (including landing with the second wave on D-Day), the Scheldt and the Rhineland campaigns with the QOR.

Rifleman Cockburn was killed in action in northern Holland near the town of Sneek when an anti-tank shell hit his carrier on 16 April 1945, aged 30. He is buried in Holten Canadian War Cemetery, grave reference XII. D. 14.

The family had the following engraved on his marker:

IN LIFE, LOVED AND HONORED
IN DEATH, ALWAYS REMEMBERED