Capt Arthur de Bells Adam (MC)
1885 - 1916

CPL David Wallace Crawford
1887 - 1916

Lce-Corpl John Joseph Nickle
1894 - 1916

Pte 17911 Morton Neill
1897 - 1916

Lieut Edward Stanley Ashcroft
1883 - 1918

Captain Harold Esmond Cooke (MC)

Age: 28
From: Bristol
Regiment: 12 KLR
Died on Friday 30th November 1917
Commemorated at: Cambrai Memorial
Panel Ref: Panel 4

Harold Esmond was born on 20th June 1889 in Bristol, Gloucestershire, the only son of Thomas Henry Cooke and his wife Mary Elizabeth (née Braithwaite). Both his parents were born in Liverpool, married in 1886 and soon after moved to the Bristol area, where their first child, Mary Braithwaite Cooke, was born in late 1887, followed by Harold in 1889. He was baptised on 21st September 1890 in St. Andrew’s, Montpelier, Bristol, his parents’ residence 58 Belmont Road, Bristol and his father’s occupation tea agent.

In 1891 the family is still living at 58 Belmont Road, Bristol. His father is 38, is a tea agent, his mother is 27, Mary is 3, and Harold is 1. Also in the household are his mother’s sister Isabella Braithwaite, 29, and a general servant.

His father died in 1897, at the age of 45, when Harold was 8. Probate in the amount of £2,895-2s-6d was granted to his widow Mary and to his brother Joseph Cooke, tea merchant.

Mary returned to Liverpool with the children and by 1901 Mary, 37, is head of household, living on her own means, at 23 Hawarden Avenue, Toxteth Park. Daughter Mary is 13, and Harold is 11. Also in the household is his maternal aunt, Isabella Braithwaite, 39, and a cousin Sarah Carson, 50, both also living on their own means, as well as a domestic servant.

Harold attended the Liverpool Institute School from 1901 until 1904 (however, his name does not appear on the school memorial).

In 1911 they are at 3 Greenhill Avenue, Mossley Hill, Liverpool, a seven room house. His mother, 47, is living on private means. Mary, 23, is a school mistress for Liverpool Corporation Education Authority, Harold is 21, an insurance clerk. They also have a visitor, Margaret Grace Lawson, age 4 (possibly the daughter of Mary’s married sister Isabella).

Harold married Emily Wood on Valentine’s Day 1914 in Liverpool in a civil ceremony. Their daughter Margaret Joan Braithwaite Cooke was born in Wavertree on 16th September 1915.

Soon after war was declared, Harold enlisted as Private 16056, 17th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment. He was billeted at Prescot Watch Factory from 14^th September 1914, he trained there and also at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 17th Battalion alongside the other three Pals battalions left Liverpool via Prescot Station for further training at Belton Park, Grantham. He quickly attained the rank of Sergeant and was discharged to commission on 01/7/1915. He was Gazetted Temporary Second Lieutenant in the 17th Battalion King's.Liverpool.Regiment., on 6th August 1915. The Pals remained at Grantham until September 1915 when they reached Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain.

Harold (Lieutenant Esmond Cooke) was a steward at his sister’s wedding, announced in the Liverpool Daily Post on 23rd September 1915. Mary (May) married Capt. Walter Willmer, 19th Battalion King's.Liverpool.Regiment, Walter died at Guillemont on 30th July 1916. (Mary never remarried, taught for many years, and died in Sussex in 1950.)

After being commissioned, Harold apparently remained in the U.K. in the Training Reserve and arrived in France on 8/9/1917. By then serving with the 12th Battalion King's.Liverpool.Regiment., Harold saw action at Polygon Wood during the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele).

By the end of November 1917 the 12th battalion was in the front line at St. Waast, northeast of Cambrai near the Belgian border. The German surprise counter attack began on 30th November. The battalion War Diary for 30th November - 2nd December 1917 records:

“About 7:30 a.m. the enemy attacked in masses under cover of a heavy artillery barrage and heavy machine gun fire from a large number of low-flying aeroplanes. These aeroplanes also dropped a number of H.E, and smoke bombs. The enemy were seen to have penetrated the line on our Right, so that it became necessary for the Battn to retire in order to avoid being cut off. Owing to the heavy M.G. fire from hostile planes on the Battery Positions, the “S.O.S.” signal was not responded to. A considerable amount of confusion was inevitable. Parties were organised from time to time to defend positions but they were continually outflanked. The remnants of the Bn were attached to other units of the 61st Bde as nearly all the officers had become casualties.” The War Diary records Casualties for 30th November - 2nd December 1917:

Officers 9 Missing, 2 Wounded

O.R. 229 Missing, 55 Wounded

Harold was one of the officers Missing in action. His death was presumed for official purposes to have occurred on or since 30th November 1917.

His award of the Military Cross was reported in the Birkenhead News on 05th October 1918:

CAPTAIN H. ESMOND COOKE'S MILITARY CROSS

The friends of Capt. H. Esmond Cooke who was reported missing some time ago, have not given up hope respecting him, despite the receipt of official intimation presuming his death. In officially announcing the award to Capt. Cooke, who was attached to the Liverpool Regiment, it is stated that the honour was for:

"Conspicious gallantry and devotion to duty. He captured all his objectives in an attack in spite of strong resistance from the enemy. He showed great ability in handling his company, and set his men a splendid example of courage and determination".

The anxiety on his account has been prolonged since the first information was received, and general sympathy will be extended to his relatives. Capt. Cooke is a nephew of Mr J Cooke of Shrewsbury-road, Oxton and brother to Mrs Walter Willmer whose husband Capt. Walter Willmer fell leading his men on July 30th 1916.

Harold's body was never recovered from the battlefield or was subsequently lost as he is commemorated on the Cambrai Memorial, Louverval, Nord.

The CAMBRAI MEMORIAL commemorates more than 7,000 servicemen of the United Kingdom and South Africa who died in the Battle of Cambrai in November and December 1917 and whose graves are not known.

Sir Douglas Haig described the object of the Cambrai operations as the gaining of a 'local success by a sudden attack at a point where the enemy did not expect it' and to some extent they succeeded. The proposed method of assault was new, with no preliminary artillery bombardment. Instead, tanks would be used to break through the German wire, with the infantry following under the cover of smoke barrages.

The attack began early in the morning of 20 November 1917 and initial advances were remarkable. However, by 22 November, a halt was called for rest and reorganisation, allowing the Germans to reinforce. From 23 to 28 November, the fighting was concentrated almost entirely around Bourlon Wood and by 29 November, it was clear that the Germans were ready for a major counter attack. During the fierce fighting of the next five days, much of the ground gained in the initial days of the attack was lost.

For the Allies, the results of the battle were ultimately disappointing but valuable lessons were learnt about new strategies and tactical approaches to fighting. The Germans had also discovered that their fixed lines of defence, no matter how well prepared, were vulnerable.

The Cambrai Memorial was designed by Harold Chalton Bradshaw with sculpture by Charles S. Jagger. It was unveiled by Lieut-General Sir Louis Vaughan on 4 August 1930.

The memorial stands on a terrace at one end of LOUVERVAL MILITARY CEMETERY. The chateau at Louverval, was taken by the 56th Australian Infantry Battalion at dawn on 2 April 1917. The hamlet stayed in Allied hands until the 51st (Highland) Division was driven from it on 21 March 1918 during the great German advance, and it was retaken in the following September.

Parts of Rows B and C of the cemetery were made between April and December 1917 and in 1927, graves were brought in from Louverval Chateau Cemetery, which had been begun by German troops in March 1918 and used by Commonwealth forces in September and October 1918.

The cemetery now contains 124 First World War burials.

Harold was posthumously awarded the Military Cross, noted in the Battalion War Diary at the end of January in ‘Decorations Awarded During the Month’, and announced in the Supplement to the London Gazette on 18th February 1918:

“T./Capt. Harold Esmond Cooke, attd. L’Pool R. For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He captured all his objectives in an attack in spite of strong resistance from the enemy. He showed great ability in handling his company and set his men a splendid example of courage and determination.”

His daughter was two years old when he died.

Probate was granted to his widow, Emily, address 13 Woodchurch Road, Stoneycroft, Liverpool, in the amount of £318-10s-1d. Emily received his Army effects, including a War Gratuity of £8. The medal card shows Emily living at Hafod Cottage, Brookdale, Meliden, North Wales.

Emily never remarried and died on 15th February 1972. She now rests at grave Q10 in God's Acre Cemetery, Corfe Castle. The details on the headstone are as follows:

In Memory of

EMILY COOKE

DIED 15-2-72

WIDOW OF

CAPTAIN HAROLD ESMOND COOKE

KILLED IN ACTION 30-11-17

REUNITED

Sadly, Harold had not been found on any memorial.

His daughter Margaret married Emil Frederic Sutton in 1934, lived in London, and died in Dorset on 17th January 1984.

Margaret also rests alongside her husband in God's Acre Cemetery, her headstone shows her as Joan Sutton. Her husband Emil Frederic Sutton died on 21st March 1985.

Grateful thanks are extended to Sue Noel who contacted this site and took the time to visit God's Acre Cemetery on our behalf and took photographs of Emily's resting place.

Grateful thanks are also extended to Joe Devereux for permission to use the photograph now shown on this site.

We currently have no further information on Harold Esmond Cooke, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.

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