A NEW ZEALAND V.C.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 811, 15 September 1916, Page 6

A NEW ZEALAND V.C.

PRIVATE THOMAS COOKE. "For taking guns to a dangerous part of the line, and sticking to his post, under heaviest lire. When assistance was sent, he was found dead beside his gun.*' In these few words was described in the cables a fewdays ago, the deed which had won the Victoria Cross, emblem of supreme courage, for Private Thomas Cooke, a member of the Australian Infantry Forces. Xew Zealand claims the honour of being the dead hero's native country. Private Cooke was the onlv son

of Mrs T. Cooke, of Kaikoura. He was born in Kaikoura 35 years ago, and was educated in that Marlborough township. He was a builder and carpenter by trade. Early in life he left Kaikoura for Wellington, where he married. Five years ago he went to Melbourne, with his wife and familv, and followed his trade there.

An enthusiastic bandsman, Private Cooke took a prominent part in several band contests. He was a member of the Garrison and City Bands, Wellington, and was bandmaster of the Kaikoura Band. When he enlisted he was engaged as a regimental bandsman. Later he was transferred for clerical work. He sow service in Egypt, and then gave up his stripes as a corporal in order to join one of the new battalions formed for service in France. His letters to his relatives stated that his trade was very useful to himself and his comrades in the trenches, as he was able to make the trenches in which he was engaged more comfortable. He was killed in action on July 28. Private Cooke's wife and three children are living in Wellington, they having returned to New Zealand when he went to the front. Me also leaves his mother and two sisters, one of whom is Mrs C. A. Oldman, of Waiau.