| Private Thomas Cooke
Private Thomas Cooke
Unit: 8th Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 1st Division
Action: 24-25 July 1916, Pozieres, France
The 1st Australian Division, with the support of the 8th, took and held Pozieres despite counter-attacks and fierce bombing. It was during this action, that Cooke, 35, was ordered to take his Lewis gun and defend a dangerous part of the line.
The citation says: "Here he did fine work, but came under very heavy fire, with the result that he was the only man left. He still stuck to his post and continued to fire his gun. When assistance was sent he was found dead beside his gun. He set a splendid example of determination and devotion to duty.''
Biography: There are some who claim Cooke's VC as one belonging to New Zealand although he was serving with the Australian army at the time.
He was born on 5 July 1881 in Kaikoura, New Zealand and became a carpenter after leaving school.
He migrated with his wife and three children to Australia and moved to Richmond, Victoria, where he worked as a builder until he enlisted in February 1915.
He joined the 8th Battalion at the Suez Canal Zone on 24 February and was shipped to France a month later. His name is commemorated on the memorial at Villers-Bretonneux.
He was survived by his wife and three children.
__________________ Spidge,
------------------------------------------------------- My Avatar is the memorial to the 22 Commonwealth Coastwatchers at the Temakin Cemetery on Betio (Tarawa Atoll) who were beheaded by the Japanese on 15th October 1942. http://www.dva.gov.au/media/publicat...mem_beito.html
"You were given the choice between war and dishonor.
You chose dishonor and you will have war."
(Winston Churchill made this prophetic pronouncement in a House of Commons speech in 1938, just after Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signed the Munich agreement with Hitler. Chamberlain returned from Germany with the signed agreement in hand, proclaiming that "peace in our time" had been achieved. Churchill attacked Chamberlain's "politics of appeasement" in this and many other speeches.)
What did the Australians do in ww2 and other conflicts? Check out this site:
http://www.diggerhistory.info/00-pag...ster-index.htm |