Lives of the First World War

Private Bernard Walter Northcott Cooke 10 Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force Private Cooke was born in Brighton, Sussex in 1889. As a young boy, he sang as a chorister in Westminster Abbey. He relocated to Canada in 1913 where he was working as a clerk at City Hall, Medicine Hat, Alberta at the start of the First World War. After receiving several rejections for army service, due to short sight, he enlisted with the Alberta Regiment of the Canadian Infantry on 6 July 1915, travelling to England with his battalion the following May. During this period, he composed a poem entitled 'Why' which questioned the need for war. Private Cooke was promoted to corporal but resigned stripes, preferring to serve on the Western Front. He was wounded at Ypres on 14 June 1916, within a few weeks of arriving at the front and died of his injuries, aged 26, the following day. Private Cooke is buried at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery.