As an undergraduate and graduate at the University of Glasgow, William Cochrane kept a very full record of the lectures he attended and the class or laboratory exercises he performed, with dates, and usually the names of the professors and lecturers concerned. These provide a useful account of the courses offered and the education available at the time. There are similar full notes of courses attended and of lectures given by Cochrane on radar during the 1939-1945 World War. Substantial but less well-ordered notes survive for lectures at Imperial College, London, before and after the war, and for his period at St Thomas's. The correspondence is slight but includes some letters from M. von Laue, 1936-1937.
- Biographical and personal papers, 1932-1959;
- School notebooks, 1921-1925;
- Glasgow University lecture notes, 1926-1943;
- Imperial College notes, 1934-1957;
- War service records, 1940-1945;
- St Thomas' Hospital records, 1971;
- Publications and broadcasts, 1947-1964;
- Correspondence, 1936-1961.