Cooke, Thomas Edward Leonard (Thomas)
Driver
No. 300394, 39th Battery, 10th Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery
Died of wounds on Friday 30 August 1918 (aged 30)
Buried:
Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension, France (Grave IV. G. 42)
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Canadian Virtual War Memorial (CVWM)
Canadian First World War Book of Remembrance
Bangor and District War Memorial
Bangor Parish Church of Ireland Church (St Comgall’s)
BIOGRAPHY
Thomas Edward Leonard Cooke was born on 19 December 1887 in Church Street, Bangor (he declared 25 March 1887 in his attestation papers) and he was baptised on 12 February 1888 in Bangor Parish Church of Ireland Church (St Comgall’s).
Thomas Edward Leonard Cooke was a son of William and Mary Cooke (nee Mailey, sometimes Malley, sometimes O’Malley). William Cooke was a seaman and he and Mary had six children:
William John (born 9 October 1874 in Bangor)
Agnes Dora (born 29 March 1877 in Bangor)
Robert Frederick Louis (born 17 April 1879 in Abbey Street, Bangor)
Archibald Alexander (born 14 May 1881 in Church Street, Bangor)
Frances Margaret (Maggie, born 28 December 1884 in Church Street, Bangor)
Thomas Edward Leonard (born 19 December 1887 in Church Street, Bangor)
Their father William died of influenza in Ruby Street, Bangor on 16 May 1899 (aged 67). After she was widowed, Mary Cooke worked as a caretaker.
The Cooke family lived in Bangor, in Abbey Street, Church Street, Dufferin Avenue and Ruby Street.
After leaving school, Thomas Edward Leonard Cooke moved to Canada where he worked as a brakeman. He and his wife, Leva Myrtle Cooke, lived at 71/73 Bennett Street, Brockville, Ontario. He enlisted in Brockville on 26 August 1915 and it was noted in his attestation papers that he was 5 feet 8 inches tall with a medium complexion, blue eyes and dark brown hair. He had tattoos on his right arm – a horse’s head with a red bridle tattooed on his forearm and on his upper arm the figure of a woman holding a dove.
Driver Thomas Edward Leonard Cooke (No. 300394) served with the Canadian Field Artillery and he was 30 when he died of wounds in a Casualty Clearing Station on 30 August 1918.
Driver Thomas Edward Leonard Cooke (No. 300394) was buried in Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension, France and he is commemorated on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial (CVWM); in the Canadian First World War Book of Remembrance; on Bangor and District War Memorial and on the Memorial Plaque in Bangor Parish Church of Ireland Church (St Comgall’s).