GEORGE ROBERT RANDAL COOK
From May through to September 2026, Andrew will be fulfilling his dream to hike the iconic Land’s End to John O’Groats! You are all warmly invited to follow Andrew’s epic journey on his Facebook page, “Andrew Beal LEJOG”: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61577588795730
As Andrew hikes the 1,300+ miles, he will raise funds for the Ipswich War Memorial Project to help finance our future exhibitions and research of the brave Ipswich men and women who lost their lives in conflict. If you would like to make a small donation, please click on the link: https://gofund.me/5d4a50570
Thank you for your love and support. Andrew & Helen – I.W.M.P.
Born: 6th September 1897, Ipswich.
Baptised on the 12th November 1897, at St. Mary Quay Church, Ipswich, with his brother, Bertie Theodore Cook, born 16th January 1895 – family home at Rogers Court, Ipswich.
Died: 22nd March 1941; age: 43; died of wounds at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Greenbank, Plymouth, Devonshire.
Residence: 43, Tanner’s Lane, Ipswich.
Occupation: General Labourer.
Rank: Petty Officer Engineman Stoker; Service Number: LT/KX 100331.
Regiment: Royal Navy Patrol Service, H.M.Trawler ‘Seddon.’
Grave Reference:
C.31.44.
Ipswich.
Relatives Notified & Address: Son of Alfred & Maud Mary Ann Cook, of Ipswich; husband of Constance Clarrissa Maud Cook, of Stoke, Ipswich.
CENSUS
1901 8, Tanners Street, Ipswich.
George was 3 years old and living with his widowed mother and siblings.
Maud Mary Ann Cook (nee Parnell), 29, born Ipswich.
Alfred Robert Cook, 11, born Ipswich.
Eva Laura Cook, 10, born Ipswich.
Bertie Theodore Cook, 6, born Ipswich.
Lilian May Cook, 5, born Ipswich.
1911 55, Montague Street, Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire.
George was 13 years old and living with his aunt & uncle and their adopted daughter.
George Cross, 48, born Durham.
Laura Cross, 47, born Ipswich.
Maud Lilian Harwood, 9, born Grimsby, Lincolnshire.
1921 1, Hawes Street, Ipswich.
George was 23 years and 9 months old, a Blacksmith’s Striker for the Great Eastern Railway’s Loco Department, Ipswich. He, his wife and daughter lived at the home of his mother-in-law, stepfather-in-law and brother-in-law.
James W. Wenham, 52 years & 7 months old, a Dock Labourer, born Ipswich.
Alice Maud Mary Wenham (nee Laughlin (1st marriage Leek)), 40 years & 8 months old, Home Duties, born Ipswich.
George Henry Leek, 15 years & 8 months old, Helping Neighbours with Casual Labour, born Ipswich.
Constance Leek, 19 years & 3 months old, Home Duties.
Vera Leek, 17 days old, born Ipswich.
1 boarder.
1 lodger.
George’s father was Alfred Cook, born 1869, Ipswich. In August 1897, Alfred’s quick thinking and prompt action averted a fire on the Ipswich dockside.
Evening Star – Tuesday, 24th August 1897 – IPSWICH DOCK FIRE AVERTED – SMOKER’S CARELESSNESS – PARAFFIN IN FLAMES – An undoubtedly calamitous dockside fire was averted on Monday evening by the timely discovery and promptness of action of a Great Eastern Railway workman. Shortly after seven o’clock, Alfred Cook, who lives in Salthouse Street and is employed on a Dock Railway engine, was on a lighter moored opposite Chapman’s Passage, immediately in front of Merss. Paul’s warehouses, and within a short distance of the Ipswich Custom House, when he noticed a flash, followed by a tongue of flame which shot up several feet. Messrs. Paul use this passage as an “open storage” for casks of paraffin, and it appears that just before Alfred Cook’s attention was attracted, one or two men who were smoking dropped a lighted match as he walked past a small pool of oil, which had accumulated from leakage. Alfred Cook and several other men immediately ran to the spot, and, realising the danger of the flames spreading to the casks, they rolled a number of them towards the railway. Meanwhile, buckets had been procured, and a few pails of water sufficed to extinguish the flame. Some of the casks were actually caught, and an upright supporting a shed was charred, but beyond this, there was no material damage. Mr. Garnham – Messrs. Paul’s manager, was apprised of the occurrence, and he hurried to the spot, and Police-constable Tricker, who was on dock duty, was also early in attendance; but the promptness with which the flames were dealt with rendered it unnecessary to summon the Fire Brigade.
The identity of the careless smoker was not established.
Alfred Cook died on the 7th April 1898, Ipswich, aged 28 years. Alfred was a Shunter on the railway.
Ipswich Journal – Friday, 8th April 1898 – RAILWAY FATALITY IN IPSWICH – SHUNTER CRUSHED TO DEATH – An inquest relative to the death of Alfred Cook, aged 28, a foreman shunter on the G.E.R., Ipswich, who lived in Hogg Lane, Salthouse Street, Ipswich, was held in the Ipswich Higher Grade School on Saturday evening. Mr. R. Seeley, manager of the Ipswich Goods Department of the G.E.R., and Mr. J. Steriker, district locomotive superintendent, represented the G.E.R. Company. Alfred Cook, picture frame maker, of 26, Turret Lane, father of the deceased, gave evidence of identification.
Charles Goldsmith, of 71, Rectory Road, engine driver on the G.E.R., said he had been a driver for four and a half years. At 12:45 that morning, he was driving an engine engaged in shunting in a siding near Fison’s Mill. He went on duty at six o’clock the previous night. He had three trucks attached to the engine and was going up the yard to attach these to some more. Alfred Cook signalled with a white light for him to move his engine. He was then about twenty yards away. Witness did not whistle. The Coroner: Is it not part of your duty to whistle before moving? Charles Goldsmith: Not when shunting; we should be constantly whistling. Continuing, the witness stated that after he had shunted, he missed the light and heard the deceased cry out, “Whoa.” He stopped his engine within a few yards and saw the deceased come out from between the trucks and walk about twenty yards. Charles went up to him, and the latter told him he had been “nipped” and was very bad. Charles assisted in removing him, and a doctor was sent for. Besides the witness, there were his fireman, two shunters (of whom the deceased was one), and a flagman engaged in the work. The deceased entered his work at six o’clock the previous night, and, with an interval of an hour or so, had been working until the time of the accident. Witness afterwards examined the trucks’ buffers but found no blood on them. Charles Goldsmith shunted the engine at the rate of about two or three miles an hour. There was no regulation governing the rate at which shunting operations should be carried out.
Edgar Button, acting fireman, gave corroborative evidence. He, however, considered that the engine was only going 1 1/2 miles an hour.
William Smith, a G.E.R. shunter, also corroborated. He had supper with Alfred Cook at eleven o’clock; they had nothing stronger than tea to drink. They coupled all the trucks with the aid of a pole. Alfred had told him that he had been “hung up” with his pole, which meant that the pole had caught in the couplings.
Harry Berty Bass, flagman, corroborated.
Police-constable Middleditch gave evidence as to conveying the deceased to the Hospital, but he was dead when the latter place was reached.
Mr. S. O. Eades, surgeon, said he had made a post-mortem examination of the body. He had found a fracture of the sixth rib on the right side, with one end projecting internally and pressing on the liver, which was lacerated, being almost in a pulp. The haemorrhage was the result of rupture of the liver, and death followed from that cause. His theory of the accident was that Alfred Cook had slipped in hooking the chain, and the edge of the buffer of the wagon, whose momentum must have been considerable, must have caught him in the side with great violence.
A verdict of “Accidental Death” was returned, the Jury being of the opinion that no blame was attached to anyone. Mr. Seeley expressed the condolences of the Company with the widow and family, for whose financial assistance an effort was being made.
After the death of her husband, George’s mother, Maud Mary Ann Cook, married again in 1910, Ipswich, to a widower, William Walter Biggs, born 1865, Ipswich, a foreman shunter for the Great Eastern Railway Company. Maud and William had two sons. George’s mother died in 1938 in Ipswich.
In 1920, Ipswich, George married Constance Clarissa Maud Leek, born March 1902, Ipswich – daughter of George Leek, brewer’s drayman, and Alice Maud Mary Leek (nee Laughlin), of 1, Hawes Street, Ipswich.
Constance and George had seven children:
Vera Evelyn Maud Cook, born June 1921, Ipswich.
George Robert Randall Cook, born 1925, Ipswich.
William Douglas Bourke Cook, born 1928, Ipswich.
Gwendoline Constance Cook, born 1931, Ipswich – died 1931, Ipswich.
Doreen M. Cook, born 1932, Ipswich.
Douglas G. Cook, born 1933, Ipswich.
Jean M. Cook, born 1936, Ipswich.
George and Constance later separated.
ENGLAND & WALES REGISTER 1939
George was a General Labourer and lived at 43, Tanner’s Lane, Ipswich.
Constance lived at 1, Hawes Street, Ipswich, with her daughter Vera Cook, a Brewery Bottle Labeller, her partner, widower Walter H. Chamberlain, a Wharf Worker and their daughter Jean.
One Comment
In 1901, I have him living with his widowed mother at 8 Tanners Street, Ipswich