Name
James William Cook
1889
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
12/08/1917
29
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
30322
Norfolk Regiment
8th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 4.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Memorial, Hemel Hempstead, John Dickinson & Co Memorial, Apsley Mills, Apsley
Pre War
James William Cook was born in Grafham, Huntingdonshire in 1889, the son of Charles and Eliza Cook, and one of nine children.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at Station Road, Grafham, where his father was working as an agricultural labourer but by 1901 his father was a Publican running the New Inn, on The Green, Brampton, Huntingdonshire.
James left school in 1902 and initially worked for his father before joining Lowe, Son & Cobbold Ltd, a local brewery, where he was employed as a Cellarman.
He married Esther Baker in Brampton on 24 November 1909 and their daughter Esther was born in 1910, with sons Charles in 1912 and Dudley in 1916, The family moved to Hemel Hempstead after 1912, living at 35 Astley Road.
At the outbreak of war James was working as a Mill Hand for John Dickinson & Company in Apsley Mills.
Wartime Service
James was called up under the Military Service Act and enlisted at Watford on 7 June 1916, then transferred to the Army Reserve for six months before being posted to the Norfolk Regiment for basic training on 11 December. He was transferred to the 9th Battalion and sent to France on 16 March 1917 and soon saw action in the trenches.
He fought in the Battle of Pilckem Ridge and Passchendaele (3rd Battle of Ypres) but was killed in action on 12 August 1917, aged 29, during an attack on Inverness Copse near the Menin Road at Ypres. He was one of two men killed on the second day of fighting.
He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £3 and pay owing of £1 16s 8d.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.hemelheroes.com., www.dacorumheritage.org.uk.
