Henry Cook (aviator)

Henry Rex Cook was born in Bombay,Great Britain, Royal Aero Club Aviators’ Certificates, 1910–1950 the son of Henry Cook and Charlotte Chesney.India, Select Births and Baptisms, 1786–1947 He and was educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich,1881 England Census and joined the Bombay Native Artillery. In 1892, Cook who was a captain, was appointed adjutant of the Cork Artillery (Southern Division) in Ireland.{{London Gazette |issue=26303 |date=1 July 1892 |page=3814 }} He continued at Cork until 1897.{{London Gazette |issue=26839 |date=6 April 1897 |page=1948 }} In 1901 Cook was attached to the Jubaland Force as an interpreter with responsibility for mapping and as an intelligence officer.{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/A2A/records.aspx?cat=059-iorlmil_3-2_1-4&cid=-1&Gsm=2008-06-18#-1 |title=Access to Archives |publisher=The National Archives |accessdate=2012-10-05}} He took part in the Ogaden Punitive Expedition of 1901.{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/frontieroverseas06indi/frontieroverseas06indi_djvu.txt |title=Full text of "Frontier and overseas expeditions from India" |accessdate=2012-10-05}}

In September 1901, Cook was promoted to major.{{London Gazette |issue=27357 |date=20 September 1901 |page=6171 }} Ten years later, in December 1911, Cook was promoted to lieutenant colonel.{{London Gazette |issue=28562 |date=15 December 1911 |page=9448 }}

Cook joined the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain on 14 December 1909.{{cite web|url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1909/1909%20-%200815.html |title=lord mayor | aero club | club | 1909 | 0815 | Flight Archive |publisher=Flightglobal.com |accessdate=2012-10-05}} He was one of the first people in England to learn to fly, taking lessons in 1910 and gaining his Royal Aero Club aviator's certificate (number 42) at Beaulieu on 31 December 1910.{{cite web|url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1952/1952%20-%200415.html |title=1952 | 0415 | Flight Archive |publisher=Flightglobal.com |accessdate=2012-10-05}}{{cite web|url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1911/1911%20-%200106.html |title=cody | 1911 | 0106 | Flight Archive |publisher=Flightglobal.com |accessdate=2012-10-05}} Following the creation of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) in May 1912, Cook was seconded from the Royal Artillery to the RFC's Central Flying School (CFS) as an instructor in theory and construction.{{London Gazette |issue=28614 |date=4 June 1912 |page=4037 }}{{cite book |last=Taylor |first=John W R |title=Central Flying School, Birthplace of Air Power |year=1987 |origyear=1958 |publisher=Jane's Publishing |isbn=0-7106-0486-6 |page=23}} After the Commandant, Captain Godfrey Paine RN, Cook was next most senior officer at the School and by August he was being described as the Assistant Commandant.{{cite web|url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1912/1912%20-%200776.html |title=royal flying | flying corps | flying school | 1912 | 0776 | Flight Archive |publisher=Flightglobal.com |accessdate=2012-10-05}} While at the CFS, Cook was involved in teaching theory.{{cite book |last=Raleigh |first=Sir Walter Alexander |authorlink=Walter Raleigh (professor) |author2=Jones, Henry Albert |title=The war in the air; being the story of the part played in the Great War by the Royal Air Force |year=1922 |url=https://archive.org/details/warinairbeingsto01raleuoft |publisher=Oxford Clarendon Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/warinairbeingsto01raleuoft/page/216 216]}} In September 1912 he was awarded a Royal Aero Club Special Certificate for carrying out a series flights and aerial manoeuvres which were of special merit in the early years of aviation.{{cite web|url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1912/1912%20-%200818.html |title=brooklands | deperdussin monoplane | 1912 | 0818 | Flight Archive |publisher=Flightglobal.com |accessdate=2012-10-05}}{{cite web|url=http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/wiki/Special_Certificates_-_UK |title=Special Certificates – UK |publisher=Gracesguide.co.uk |accessdate=2012-10-05}} In December 1912, Cook spent some time in India, visiting Agra where he made observations on the ability of birds to soar and theorized on the effect of sunlight on air.{{cite web|url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1912/1912%20-%200072.html |title=airship | 1912 | 0072 | Flight Archive |publisher=Flightglobal.com |accessdate=2012-10-05}}

On 23 June 1913, Cook returned to the Royal Garrison Artillery and was placed on the RFC's reserve list.{{London Gazette |issue=28734 |date=4 July 1913 |page=4737 }} He served throughout the First World War. In 1919, he was appointed Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire after serving in the Third Anglo-Afghan War.{{Edinburgh Gazette |date=19 September 1919 |issue=13502 | page=3104 |endpage= |supp=}} He retired on 14 September 1919 as a substantive colonel with the honorary rank of brigadier-general.{{London Gazette |issue=31719 |date=2 January 1920 |page=182 |supp=y }}

In 1914, Cook married widow Frances Helen Cooke (née Sullivan) in Karachi.India, Select Marriages, 1792–1948 They had two sons, Brigadier Henry Kirkpatrick Cook (1915–1973) and Geoffrey Beare Rex Cook (1917–2001).Scotland and Northern Ireland, Death Index, 1989–2021 Their elder son was appointed aide-de-camp to Queen Elizabeth II in 1967.{{London Gazette |date=25 August 1967 |issue=44395 | page=9486}}

In 1938, Frances, 56, died by suicide after jumping from the roof garden of the German Hospital, Dalston, where Frances was hospitalised for cystitis and Cook was hospitalised after undergoing an operation. According to their son Richard, she had been depressed because of the duration of her illness.{{cite news |title=Threw Herself from Hospital Roof – Suicide of Brigadier-General's Wife – Husband in Same Hospital |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003293/19380422/021/0003 |access-date=25 June 2023 |work=Westminster & Pimlico News |date=22 April 1938 |page=3|url-access=subscription}}{{cite news |title=General's Wife Falls 50 Feet to Death|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000563/19380413/136/0007 |work=Dundee Evening Telegraph |date=13 April 1938 |page=7 |url-access=subscription}}

Cook died in 21 January 1950 in Bournemouth.

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{{s-ttl|title=Assistant Commandant of the Central Flying School|years=1912–1913}}

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Category:1863 births

Category:1950 deaths

Category:British Army generals of World War I

Category:Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire

Category:Royal Artillery officers

Category:Royal Flying Corps officers