Born in November 1891, Robert Guy Cook was the son of Mary Ann Cook and Thomas G. Cook, a life insurance agent. In 1911, he and his parents were living at 56 Hampton Road, Forest Gate with two boarders. He attended Coopers Company School in Bow from 1901 to 1907.
Robert joined the Honorable Artillery Company on 10th June 1915 and was a 2nd Lieutenant in The Worcestershire Regiment by June 1916. Robert Cook clearly demonstrated leadership qualities for he was appointed as Intelligence and Observation Officer at Headquarters. His General said of him:
‘He was very popular here at Headquarters, as he was with his regiment, and will be a tremendous loss to us and the service to which he gave his life.’
Robert was well known in Ilford musical circles as a tenor in the series of Gilbert and Sullivan Opera performances which were produced under the auspices of the Metropolitan Academy of Music at Ilford Town Hall, and he was a Bronze Medallist of the same Academy for the year 1914.
Robert was killed in action in ‘Flanders Fields’ on the 9th February 1917, aged 25 years. According to Robert’s probate records, he is living at 246 Browning Road Manor Park. Robert’s father, Thomas, is recorded as living at 5 Melbourne Road, Ilford (in De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour) and at 218 Wellesley Road, Ilford (in the Commonwealth War Grave Records).
Robert Cook is buried at Maple Leaf Cemetery in Belgium.
Some information / extracts have been reproduced with kind permission of Karen Pack from her book ‘Coopers’ Boys & Coborn Girls: Their Part in the Great War’ © Karen Pack, 2015
Sources:
Ancestry.com
ICHS school records and magazines
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour