Name
Arthur Thomas Cook
1888
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
25/03/1918
30
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Corporal
25477
Northamptonshire Regiment
7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
PARGNY BRITISH CEMETERY
IV. C. 7.
France
Headstone Inscription
PEACE PERFECT PEACE
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial,
St Paul's Church (Demolished) Memorial, Hemel Hempstead,
John Dickinson & Co Memorial, Apsley Mills, Apsley
Pre War
Arthur Thomas Cook was born in Borden, Kent in 1888 the son of Eli and Mary Cook and one of ten children.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at Key Street, Borden, Kent, where his father was working as a Gardener, Domestic Servant, and by 1901 the family had moved about a mile north to Bobbing in Kent and were living at Knights Cottages where his father was working as a Coachman and Domestic Gardener.
In 1907 Arthur moved to Hemel Hempstead to take up a position as Butler to Percy Christopherson, the Headmaster of Lockers Park School.
On the 1911 Census his family had moved again to Rochester, Kent where his father was a Horse Keeper on a farm and Arthur, aged 23 is listed as a Butler (Domestic). He would have been working at Lockers Park at that time and an Arthur Cook is listed as a boarder, aged 23 working as an indoor servant and boarding with Annie Burge, a widow and caretaker of a school, at Park Villas, Hemel Hempstead. (N.B. his place of birth is given as Sittingbourne, Kent, the nearest town to Borden, Kent.). This may be a case of double entry of the same person.
He met Ada Elizabeth Wallace from Kettering, Northamptonshire, at Lockers Park, who had come to the school in 1912 to work as a housemaid. They married in 1914 at St James' Church, Thrapston, nr Kettering, Northamptonshire.
At some point he must have left service as a butler (perhaps following his marriage) and worked at John Dickinson & Co Ltd at Apsley Mills as he is named on the company memorial.
Wartime Service
Arthur enlisted in Hemel Hempstead in June 1916, joined the Northamptonshire Regiment and was sent for basic training before arriving in France in early 1917, when he was posted to the 7th (Service) Battalion.
He soon saw in action in the Battle of Vimy Ridge in April 1917, followed by the Battle of Messines. The Battalion then moved to Belgium, taking up positions north of Ypres in late July and he fought in the Battles of Pilckem Ridge and Langemarck in mid August, where the Battalion suffered more than 250 casualties.
At some point he was promoted to Corporal and early in 1918 the Battalion were training and occupied in working parties. In early March he was given home leave and returned to England to see family and friends.
He returned to France on 18 March and days later fought in the Battle of St Quentin. Shortly afterwards the Battalion took part in a French counter attack which went badly wrong, resulting in the Germans out flanking them, resulting in significant casualties. Arthur was one of the casualties and was killed in action on 25 March 1918. He is buried in Pargny British Cemetery, France.
Additional Information
His widow, Mrs A E Cook, 76 Irthlingborough Road, Finedon, Wellingborough, N, Hants., ordered his headstone inscription: "PEACE PERFECT PEACE". She received a war gratuity of £9 and pay owing of £6 19s 1d. She also received a pension of 15 shillings a week. Her address on pension records is Park Villas, Hemel Hempstead.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.hemelheroes.com., www.hemelatwar.org., www.dacorumheritage.org.uk.
