Cook shells?

[E Wilcock]

Does anyone have info about Cook, applied to ammunition?

In his Diary entry 18 Aug 1915, Howitzer Battery Officer, Reginald Pridmore, notes:

"In the afternoon fired about 20 rounds at front line trenches very successfully. Used Cook for first-time. Shell travels very slowly and is quite easily followed by naked eye. "

We'd be grateful for any info.

[centurion]

T Cooke and Sons manufactured gun sights for artillery. Taken over by Vickers in 1915.

Sometimes miss spelled as Cook

[Lancashire Fusilier]

Does anyone have info about Cook, applied to ammunition?

In his Diary entry 18 Aug 1915, Howitzer Battery Officer, Reginald Pridmore, notes:

"In the afternoon fired about 20 rounds at front line trenches very successfully. Used Cook for first-time. Shell travels very slowly and is quite easily followed by naked eye. "

We'd be grateful for any info.

As Centurion posted earlier, the reference to Cook ( Cooke ) probably referred to his use of a Cooke artillery optical gunsight or range finder, rather than his referring to the actual shells being fired. Cooke/Vickers produced such military equipment during WW1.

T. Cooke & Sons (1837-1922)

The scientific instrument manufacturing business of T. Cooke & Sons was founded by Thomas Cooke in York in 1837. He was a self-taught optical engineer of great ability who from 1855 built his own factory on Bishophill, York, producing a great range of goods from spectacles, telescopes and surveying equipment to sundials, clocks and lathes. On his death in 1868 his sons took over the firm which continued to expand and export goods worldwide, particularly astronomical and surveying equipment. By the turn of the century defence products for the home market had also become an important field and in 1914 a new factory was built on Bishophill, York, to cope with war work.

In 1915 the control of Cooke's was acquired by Vickers Ltd., the engineering firm of shipbuilding and aircraft fame, who had long had an interest in the military side of Cooke products such as rangefinders, gunsights and surveying equipment adapted to military needs. Cookes continued to expand in York and in 1922 they amalgamated with the long established instrument-making firm of Troughton & Simms of London (1824-1922). The new firm became Cooke, Troughton & Simms and in 1924 it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Vickers. In 1939 another factory was built on a larger site in Haxby Road and during the Second World War, of the 3,300 people employed by the firm, 1,400 were women.

LF

[centurion]

They also made artillery plotting tables - the sort of thing a battery officer might well use.

[E Wilcock]

Thank you so much - this forum is invaluable.

[Chutist33]

As an aside, Cooke, T & S, had its own Home Guard - 108 Yorkshire Home Guard Rocket AA Battery, located on York Knavesmire, with 4 sections, 16 guns per section, 2 rockets per gun. By repute it only shot down one aircraft - a Lysander - but which should not have been there! Yours aye, Jim K