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SKELTON - IN - CLEVELAND
IN HISTORY
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"WE WILL REMEMBER THEM"
1828 Corporal HERBERT COOK. MM.
4th Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment.
Died of wounds, aged 37, on the 15th January 1917.
Born at Guisborough, N Yorks. Enlisted Skelton in Cleveland.
Husband of Elizabeth Cook of 51 Park St, Skelton in Cleveland, N Yorkshire.
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Dernancourt Communal Cemetery Extension. Near Albert,
Somme.
[Shown by kind permission of ww1cemeteries.com].
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Herbert Cook MM.
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The Military Medal.
Inscribed around the edge with the holder's name.
War Office record of issue of 1914-15 Star,
British War Medal and
Victory Medal.
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FAMILY:-
Herbert was my Grandfather.
He was born in Guisborough and was a Platelayer in the Ironstone Mines.
On 14th August 1907, at Skelton Parish Church, he married Elizabeth Watson, the daughter of George Watson (under manager Park Pit) and
Elizabeth Watson of 38 Back Lane, Skelton.
1911. They were living at 51 Park Street, Skelton, N Yorks.
They had a boy, Bertie, who died in infancy of meningitis and a daughter, Ethel, who was only 7 at the time of her father's death.
22 years later, Ethel, was also to lose her husband, Sergeant William C Danby, Green Howards, in the Second World War.
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WAR SITUATION
The 4th Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment were part of the 150th Brigade, 50th (Northumbrian) Division.
Herbert was a Volunteer for service with the local Skelton G Company of the Territorial Force before the War.
He went to France on the 18th April 1915 when the 4th Yorks were first ordered out and fought through all the trials at Ypres and the trenches at Kemmel in 1915/16.
He was a stretcher bearer and was awarded the Military Medal, in the London Gazette, dated 9th December 1916.
As it took some time to come through, it was most likely tending to the wounded in September 1916 during the Battle of Flers Courcelettes in September 1916, when many men were killed and wounded attacking German trenches near Martinpuich.
In January 1917 the Battalion were defending the trenches near Warlencourt, Somme, the furthest point the offensive reached.
The Battalion War diary says - "On the night of the 11th the Btn walked into a German barrage at Hexham Rd."
Cpl Leeks was killed and Herbert was severely wounded and died on the 15th January.
Full details based on the Battalion War Diary can be read here.
MEMORIAL:-
Herbert died of his wounds and must have been taken back to a Casualty Station near Dernancourt, close to Albert, where he is buried.
Dernancourt Cemetery is about 3 kilometres South of Albert and contains 2,162 Commonwealth burials and Commemorations from the First War.
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Dernancourt Communal Cemetery.
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Director of War Graves Notification.
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Those bodies that could be recovered were buried quickly and marked by wooden crosses.
The family could request details and Herbert Cook's widow received the above notification.
It was obviously only after the war that the memorials and well kept Commonwealth War cemeteries could be created.
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