PRIVATE EDGAR GEORGE COOKE

Died 29th March 1917
No. 26213 of the 5th Wiltshire Regiment, Duke of Edinburghs.
Born: 1897
Resided: 28 The Leys, Woburn Sands
Enlisted: Bletchley

Edgar Cooke, from The Beds Times

There are references to this man as either Edward or Edgar, but on his death, the family wrote in to the Beds Standard to correct the name as Edgar.

Edgar’s father, Henry John, lived on The Leys. Edgar was working on the new Golf Course at Aspley Guise when he and his brother Roland Charles both volunteered in November 1915, under Lord Derby’s scheme (known as the “Pal’s Battalions”) and left for Mesopotamia with the 5th Wiltshires the next year. Another brother was in the Northants Regiment, and brother Frederick was on HMS Africa. Edgar was formerly with the Royal Field Artillery, no. 128436

He was killed in action, aged 20. His family had received a letter a few days before his death, saying he had been ‘over-the-top’ but had survived OK. His picture appeared in the “Beds Times” in May, when news reached his family. He is listed on the Basra Memorial, Iraq. Listed on the Woburn Sands Memorial.

The will of Edgar Cooke, written 16th December 1916: “In the event of my death, I give the whole of my property and effects to my father Mr Henry John Cooke, 28 The Leys Terrace, Woburn Sands, Bucks.”

BACK

 

Page last updated Jan. 2019.