Bert Cooksley

{{Short description|New Zealand politician}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}

{{Use New Zealand English|date=August 2014}}

File:Cooksley, Mr & Mrs B V (cropped).jpg

Bert Victor Cooksley {{post-nominals|country=NZL|OBE|MM|size=85%}} (born "Bertie"; 13 July 1892 – 26 July 1980) was a New Zealand politician of the National Party.

{{NZ parlbox header|nolist=true|align=right}}

{{NZ parlbox

|start = {{NZ election link year|1949}}

|end = 1951

|term = 29th

|electorate = {{NZ electorate link|Wairarapa}}

|party = New Zealand National Party

}}

{{NZ parlbox

|start = {{NZ election link year|1951}}

|end = 1954

|term = 30th

|electorate = Wairarapa

|party = New Zealand National Party

}}

{{NZ parlbox

|start = {{NZ election link year|1954}}

|end = 1957

|term = 31st

|electorate = Wairarapa

|party = New Zealand National Party

}}

{{NZ parlbox

|start = {{NZ election link year|1957}}

|end = 1960

|term = 32nd

|electorate = Wairarapa

|party = New Zealand National Party

}}

{{NZ parlbox

|start = {{NZ election link year|1960}}

|end = 1963

|term = 33rd

|electorate = Wairarapa

|party = New Zealand National Party

}}

{{End}}

Cooksley was born in 1892 in Dunsandel, Canterbury. He attended Dunsdale School. He farmed in Taita in the Hutt Valley. He went with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force into World War I and landed at Gallipoli.{{cite book |last = Gustafson |first = Barry |authorlink = Barry Gustafson |title = The First 50 Years : A History of the New Zealand National Party |year = 1986 |publisher = Reed Methuen |location = Auckland |isbn = 0-474-00177-6 |page=304}}[http://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE19173320 Bertie Victor Cooksley, No 4/1086a WWI NZEF Military Personnel Record (online)] He gave his birth dates as August 1892 (WWI) and August 1894 (WWII), rather than 13 July 1892.

Cooksley was a market vegetable grower and, in 1944, President of the New Zealand Council of Commercial Gardeners.{{cite news|url= https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=AS19441118.2.59&srpos=14&e=01-01-1943-01-01-1945--10--11----0Cooksley-ARTICLE- |title= Boycott Threatened |publisher=Papers Past, National Library |date=3 April 2014}} In 1943, he lost the general election for the seat of Otaki, on behalf of the National Party. He represented the Wairarapa electorate from 1949 till 1963, when he retired.{{cite book |last= Wilson |first= James Oakley |title= New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 |edition= 4th |origyear= First ed. published 1913 |year= 1985 |publisher=V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer |location= Wellington |oclc=154283103 |page=190}}

Cooksley was awarded the Military Medal in World War I. In 1953, he received the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal,{{cite book |last1=Taylor |first1=Alister |last2=Coddington |first2=Deborah |authorlink1=Alister Taylor |authorlink2=Deborah Coddington |title=Honoured by the Queen – New Zealand |year=1994 |publisher=New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa |location=Auckland |isbn=0-908578-34-2 |page=105}} and he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for community service in the 1965 New Year Honours.{{London Gazette |issue=43531 |date=1 January 1965 |page=44 |supp=3}}

Cooksley died at Waikanae in 1980{{cite web |url=http://www.pncc.govt.nz/content/136245/DOC%203%20Heritage%20part%203%20p118%20to%20end.pdf |title=North West Square Heritage Area |year=2010 |publisher=Palmerston North CIty Council|accessdate=23 November 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130218173406/http://pncc.govt.nz/content/136245/DOC%203%20Heritage%20part%203%20p118%20to%20end.pdf |archivedate=18 February 2013 |df=dmy-all }} before cremation and burial in its cemetery.{{cite web |url=http://eservices.kapiticoast.govt.nz/cemeteries/02WCWB001 |title=Cemetery details |date= |website= |publisher=Kāpiti Coast District Council |accessdate=20 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150120115452/http://eservices.kapiticoast.govt.nz/cemeteries/02WCWB001 |archive-date=20 January 2015 |url-status=dead }}