Pte Frederick Willie Cook, 30625 Bedfordshire Yeomanry att. 1/1 Lincolnshire Yeomanry

[John Vickers]

Pte Frederick Willie Cook, 30625

Bedfordshire Yeomanry

att. 1/1 Lincolnshire Yeomanry

b.8/9/1892 Longney, Glos

d.29/12/1917 Port Said, Egypt of pyaemia

Unmarried schoolteacher. Home listed as Newnham, Glos.

 

I'm looking for some help on this man for a memorial biography. I have a lot of detail about his background and family but little to go on with his military record.

 

Willie is his birth name (not William) though sometimes spelled Willy

He is listed as L/Cpl in Soldiers Effects, died 29/12/1917 of pyaemia in Port Said

I couldn't find any Gazette entry for a promotion to L/Cpl. Most references to him are as Pte.

CWGC shows burial at Port Said War Memorial Cemetery

 

On the civil side, he may have been teaching in a boys' school in Canterbury from September 1913 but I have failed to find hard evidence of which school.

 

I'm assuming he could have been evacuated out of ????? by hospital train to Kantara and then by boat to Port Said. 

 

Any help will be most gratefully received.

Edited 3 January , 2018 by John Vickers
Additional information

[John Vickers]

Dates of attestation and move to 1/1 Lincs would be very helpful

Edited 3 January , 2018 by John Vickers
Additional information

[Langdon]

 

The war gratuity of £14 in Soldiers Effects indicates enlistment in or near to November 1914 (thanks to Forum pal Craig's gratuity calculator)

 

Mike

[ss002d6252]

#30629 was allocated 1 Feb 1915, and #30631 2 Feb 1915, so if the war gratuity indicates an earlier enlistment then he served under another service number prior to the Beds Yeomanry.

 

Craig

[John Vickers]

Thanks, @ss002d6252 and @Langdon - it leads then to a further question. He was a teacher and finished 2 academic years training at Winchester Training College in 1913. During his student time it was likely that he had been in B Company, 4th Territorial Battalion Hampshire Regiment, as many students were. Would this affect the War Gratuity?

Edited 4 January , 2018 by John Vickers
Tagged

[ss002d6252]

3 hours ago, John Vickers said:

Thanks, @ss002d6252 and @Langdon - it leads then to a further question. He was a teacher and finished 2 academic years training at Winchester Training College in 1913. During his student time it was likely that he had been in B Company, 4th Territorial Battalion Hampshire Regiment, as many students were. Would this affect the War Gratuity?

Not pre-war , only war time service affected the war gratuity.

What it does raise though is an initially interesting issue regarding the war gratuity - that he may have had a split period of service. Langdon correctly states (using my war gratuity calculator) that the war gratuity indicates that war time service started Nov 14 however I suspect this is simply an unusual borderline case where my gratuity calculator falls over and a manual calculation is needed !

 

So, doing it manually...

 

£14 net gratuity was £17 gross . This gives 36 months qualifying service. Taken as straight single period of service this would suggest enlistment in the month from 30 January 1915.

We know #30629 Beds Yeo. was allocated 1st Feb so #30625 was allocated either that day or very shortly before - in this case the gratuity indicates it would be issued between 30 Jan 1915 and 1 Feb 1915 so the the war gratuity fits nicely. This would indicate his only war time service was with the Beds Yeomanry.

It would also suggest he wasn't a pre-war territorial, or he had left before the war, as otherwise he'd have been called up in August 14 and the war gratuity would reflect that.

 

Craig
 

 

 

 

[John Vickers]

Thanks, @ss002d6252 - very helpful indeed.

 

See you're from Gateshead. I'm down in Bristol but from Rowlands Gill (40 years back!). My profile picture is my grandfather from High Spen.

 

BTW, where do you go for Regt Numbers? I was using http://armyservicenumbers.blogspot.co.uk but it peters out in 1914 for Beds.

 

[ss002d6252]

Just now, John Vickers said:

Thanks, @ss002d6252 - very helpful indeed.

 

See you're from Gateshead. I'm down in Bristol but from Rowlands Gill (40 years back!). My profile picture is my grandfather from High Spen.

 

BTW, where do you go for Regt Numbers? I was using http://armyservicenumbers.blogspot.co.uk but it peters out in 1914 for Beds.

 

I live in Gateshead now but I'm originally from Consett - moved down from the hills...

For war time service numbers I tend to use Find My Past to search for numbers as the wildcard searches it allows is far better than Ancestry.

 

Craig

[John Vickers]

Thanks. Grandfather, Fenwick Vickers, ended his working life as colliery engineer at Medomsley Colliery and lived in Leadgate. Still have family and friends in Bridgehill.