Name
Charles Adams Cook
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
11/03/1916
24
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
Bedfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star (with Clasp & Roses), British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CABARET-ROUGE BRITISH CEMETERY, SOUCHEZ
XVII. H. 35.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hertford Town Memorial,
St Andrew’s Church Roll of Honour, Hertford,
St Andrew’s Church Memorial, Hertford,
Hertford Working Men’s Club (Now Sloppy Joe’s Bar),
Thundridge War Memorial
Pre War
Charles was born 1892 in Hertford, Herts. Son of William Henry Cook a Corn & Coal Merchant and Elizabeth Rebecca (poss Emme) Cook. His father died in 1901 and it is probable that Charles was at a very small school in Cromer (8 pupils!), as a boarder, and is said to have been privately educated in Hythe after that.
The 1911 Census shows him aged 19 years working in the family Corn & Coal Merchants business. His mother is shown as a widow and the head of the family. Home address is given as Old Cross House, Hertford, Herts. His Medal card also shows him with the Rank of Lieutenant however this does not appear on any other documents.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in the 1st/1st Battalion Hertfordshire Regiment as Private 1467 Charles Adams Cook. From his medal card we find he held the Rank of Lance Sergeant and Sergeant in the 1st/1st Hertfordshire Regiment. The battalion was part of the BEF arriving in France in November 1914.
He was later Commissioned into the 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment as a 2nd Lieutenant. An extract from the Battalion War Diary 11/03/16 shows he was in the trenches with his men when he was shot by a sniper and killed instantly during a quiet time in the front line at St Laurent-Blangy near Arras.
Additional Information
The Thundridge memorial records him as serving with the 2nd Bedfordshires, but he was serving with the 1st Bn. When he was killed. His mother died shortly after the end of the war. They lived and worked at Old Cross Hertford. A Charles Cook is listed under the Commercial Section of Kellys Directory in Wadesmill in 1914, so presumable he had moved into the area, and this accounts for his name on the Thundridge War Memorial.
Charles is also commemorated on his parents’ grave in Hertford (All Saints) Churchyard. His part of the inscription reads:
TO THE DEAR MEMORY OF
SECD. LIEUT CHARLES ADAMS COOK 1ST BEDS REGT ONLY SON OF THE ABOVE WHO GAVE HIS LIFE FOR HIS COUNTRY ON ACTIVE SERVICE MARCH 11TH 1916 AND WAS BURIED AT ST NICHOLAS CEMETERY ARRAS FRANCE AGED 24 YEARS B FAUST UNTO AND WILL GIVE OF THE A CROWN
ALSO THERE DEAR SON HARRY 4TH GLOUCESTER REGT, ATTACHED TO R.E.
FELL IN ACTION IN FRANCE SEPR. 20TH 1917 AGED 24 YEARS.
BE THOU THY FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH AND I WILL GIVE THEE A CROWN OF LIFE
Acknowledgments
Malcolm Lennox, Maurice Charge, Stuart Osborne, Pat Bird
