A Collection of Boer War Medals to the Royal Navy

Five: Stoker 1st Class H. Cooke, Royal Navy, killed in action on H.M.S. Russell, 27 April 1916

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 2 clasps, Tugela Heights, Relief of Ladysmith (176138 A-B., H.M.S. Terrible) large impressed naming, correction to rank; China 1900, no clasp (A.B., H.M.S. Terrible); 1914-15 Star (176138 Sto. 1, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (176138 Sto. 1, R.N.) mounted court style, the first two with a little contact wear and occasional edge bruising, but generally very fine, the remainder rather better (5) £650-750

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Boer War Medals to the Royal Navy.

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Harry Cooke was born in Godstone, Surrey on 13 September 1878, the son of Charles and Emma Cooke. By occupation a Nurse, he enlisted into the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class on Impregnable in September 1893 and was advanced to Boy 1st Class the following year. He was promoted to Ordinary Seaman when on Crescent in September 1896. Posted to the 1st class cruiser Terrible in September 1899, he was promoted to Able Seaman in March 1900. In the Boer War he served as part of the Naval Brigade involved in the relief of Ladysmith and then on the same ship, served in the Third China War. In June 1905 on the Acheron, his rating was changed to that of Stoker 2nd Class, rising to Stoker 1st Class in September 1906. In August 1912 he posted to the old battleship Russell. Remaining in the Mediterranean after the close of the Dardanelles operations the Russell became one of the first victims of German minelaying submarines. On 25 April 1916 she struck one of a series of mines lain by the U.73 across the entrance to Valetta Harbour, Malta. The ship sank with the loss of 124 officers and men, one of whom was Stoker Cooke. Cooke was the husband of Martha Cooke of The Rosary, Collingwood Wood, Witham, Essex; his name is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial. Sold with copied service paper and other research.