| Regimental number | 855 |
| Place of birth | Goldie near Lancefield, Victoria |
| School | Romsey State School, Victoria |
| Religion | Presbyterian |
| Occupation | Farmer |
| Address | Romsey, Victoria |
| Marital status | Single |
| Age at embarkation | 18 |
| Next of kin | Mother, Mrs Alice Jane Cook, Romsey, Victoria |
| Previous military service | Nil (lived in an exempt area under the Compulsory Military Training scheme) |
| Enlistment date | |
| Rank on enlistment | Private |
| Unit name | 38th Battalion, C Company |
| AWM Embarkation Roll number | 23/55/1 |
| Embarkation details | Unit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A54 Runic on |
| Rank from Nominal Roll | Private |
| Unit from Nominal Roll | 38th Battalion |
| Fate | Killed in Action |
| Place of death or wounding | Messines, Belgium |
| Age at death | 19.11 |
| Age at death from cemetery records | 19 |
| Place of burial | No known grave |
| Commemoration details | The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 25), Belgium The Menin Gate Memorial (so named because the road led to the town of Menin) was constructed on the site of a gateway in the eastern walls of the old Flemish town of Ypres, Belgium, where hundreds of thousands of allied troops passed on their way to the front, the Ypres salient, the site from April 1915 to the end of the war of some of the fiercest fighting of the war. The Memorial was conceived as a monument to the 350,000 men of the British Empire who fought in the campaign. Inside the arch, on tablets of Portland stone, are inscribed the names of 56,000 men, including 6,178 Australians, who served in the Ypres campaign and who have no known grave. The opening of the Menin Gate Memorial on 24 July 1927 so moved the Australian artist Will Longstaff that he painted 'The Menin Gate at Midnight', which portrays a ghostly army of the dead marching past the Menin Gate. The painting now hangs in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, at the entrance of which are two medieval stone lions presented to the Memorial by the City of Ypres in 1936. Since the 1930s, with the brief interval of the German occupation in the Second World War, the City of Ypres has conducted a ceremony at the Memorial at dusk each evening to commemorate those who died in the Ypres campaign. |
| Panel number, Roll of Honour, Australian War Memorial | 129 |
| Miscellaneous information from cemetery records | Parents: David and Alice COOK, Romsey, Victoria |
| Family/military connections | Brother: 1381 Gunner Walter COOK, 36th Heavy Artillery Brigade, returned to Australia, 28 August 1919; Cousins: 1180 Trooper Alfred COOK, 8th Light Horse Regiment, died of wounds, 20 April 1917; 2132 Sergeant Harvey James COOK, 2nd Machine Gun Bn, killed in action, 9 October 1919; 2684 Pte Eccles Vallance NEWMAN, 2nd Pioneer Bn, killed in action, 3 October 1918; 6801A Pte Francis William James COOK, 23rd Bn, killed in action, 18 August 1918; Lt George Alfred COOK MC, 2nd Tunnelling Company, returned to Australia, 10 April 1919. |
| Other details |
War service: Western Front Embarked from Melbourne, 20 June 1916. Admitted to ship's hospital while at sea: measles; discharged from hospital. Disembarked Plymouth, England, 10 August 1916. Admitted to Military Hospital, Devonport, 10 August 1916 (sick; slight); discharged from hospital, 5 October 1916. Proceeded overseas to France, 3 May 1917; taken on strength, 38th Bn, 22 May 1917. Killed in action, 7-9 June 1917. Believed to have been buried 'on the battlefield where he fell - between BETHLEHEM FARM and the River LYS' (CO, 38th Bn, 13 November 1918). Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal |
Postal Address:
Po Box 7916
Canberra BC 2610, Australia
Street Address:
Northcott Drive,
Campbell, ACT 2600
