COOK, Cyril Mountfort

Cyril Cook was the son of a Dudley Alderman and volunteered for the Worcestershire Hussars. After training they embarked at Avonmouth on the 11th April 1915 for Egypt and the Dardanelles campaign. They stayed in Egypt until August when they landed at Suvla Bay as dismounted troops and fought in the opening battle of Chocolate Hill. They were affected by severe sickness in September as the campaign reached a stalemate of trench warfare. They were evacuated in October to Egypt and Cyril Cook returned to England for training. He was commissioned to the Worcestershire Regiment and then served in the 2/7th Territorial Battalion. They arrived on the Western Front for the Battle of the Somme and fought from Ovillers to the Ancre. In early 1917 they were in the follow up to the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line and then moved to Flanders in August to Flanders for the Third Battle of Ypres. They took over trenches near St. Julien beside the river Steenbeek and were engaged in three actions in 10 days. The first on the 16th failed, the second on the 20th, with the help of seven tanks, succeeded but the last took place in continuous heavy rain on the night of the 26th August. There were many casualties and among those killed in action was Second Lieutenant Cyril Cook. He was 23 years of age and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot and Dudley Memorials.