Name
William Arthur Cook
1894
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
27/09/1916
22
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
22068
Bedfordshire Regiment
8th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
GROVE TOWN CEMETERY, MEAULTE
I. G. 31.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Little Gaddesden Village Memorial,
St Peter & St Paul Church Roll of Honour, Little Gaddesden,
St Peter & St Paul Church Roll of Honour (2018 Revision), Little Gaddesden,
Not on the Berkhamsted memorials
Pre War
William Arthur Cook was born in Berkhamsted in 1894, the son of William and Sarah Cook, one of 7 children, and baptised at Great Berkhamstead, Herts on 28 June 1894.
On the 1901 Census, his widowed father and the family were living at 12 Bridge Street, Great Berkhamsted where his father was working as a Coal Carter, his mother having died (possibly in childbirth) in 1898 when his younger sister Sarah Ann was born. His eldest sister Beatrice was Housekeeper (aged 19) with another sister Florence helping at home.
After his father died in 1904 in Berkhamsted, aged 45 it is believed he may have lived with his sister Beatrice and her husband Jesse Blake in Ringshall, Great Berkhamsted but by the 1911 Census he was a boarder, living at the Reading Room, Little Gaddesden, where Annie Whitman (a widow) was the Caretaker. He also taught in Little Gaddesden Sunday School.
Wartime Service
He enlisted at Bedford in March 1915 and may have initially served with the Bedfordshire Yeomanry (as listed on the Little Gaddesden Memorial) but later served with the 8th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment in France from May 1916.
He was wounded during the Battle of Morval on 26 September 1916 from a gunshot wound which caused a fractured femur and died the next day, age 22, in No 34 Casualty Clearing Station. He is buried in Grove Town Cemetery, Méaulte, Somme, France.
Additional Information
Mrs Elizabeth Wells received a war gratuity of £5 and pay owing of £2 19s 1d. (William's relationship with Mrs Wells is unknown at this time)
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, dacorumheritage.org.uk, hemelatwar.org., littlegaddesdenchurch.org.uk
