Private Henry Cooke
Number: 33580
Company: 61st (Dublin) Company (New), 17th Battalion, Second Contingent
ENLISTMENT
Date: 14 February 1901
Place: Belfast
Age: 20 years
Trade or calling: Grocer
Place of birth: In the Parish of Belfast, in or near the Town of Belfast, in the County of Antrim
Family: Single. Mother Annie Cooke, Innisfail, Cregagh Road, Belfast.
Previous military service:
Description: Height 5' 6". Complexion fresh, eyes grey, hair brown.
Religion: Presbyterian
ACTIVE SERVICE
Date to South Africa: 26 March 1901
Date home: 29 July 1902
Service medal, clasps and other awards: Queen's South Africa Medal. Cape Colony, Orange Free State, 1901, 1902 clasps.
DISCHARGE
Date: 5 August 1902
Place: Aldershot
Reason for discharge: The termination of his engagement
Intended place of residence: Innisfail, Cregagh Road, Belfast
Conduct: Good
Special qualifications: Apprentice
On 14 September 1901 The Ballymena Weekly Telegraph published the image above and the following letter, which Cooke wrote home to his mother:
I received your letter of the 2nd July to-day, and I have already received several of yours, usually about a month after they were posted, so I wonder you have not received some of mine long before this. I still keep in the best of health, and am always ready for a dust with the Boers. As I write, Delarey is coming over the country in this direction (Blowbank, Orange River Colony), so we are expecting an engagement at any time. We have been in three or four fights lately, but have come out of them safely, as we had only one wounded and four captured. We had a very hard march from Coffiefontein last week. We were almost three days and nights in the saddle. On this march we captured Commandant Oberaill, one field cornet, and six Boers; and on the 2nd, while out flanking, eight of us came right on the top of forty Boers hiding in a donga. As soon as they saw us off they went, and the eight of us, firing a volley into them, dashed after them as hard as we could. We have been tracking all through Orange River Colony these last two weeks. I have been in Botha's, Pretorius's, and several other commandants' farms. Some of these farmhouses are the most beautifully furnished I have ever seen, but all deserted, as are even the towns like Lucknow, Fauresmith, Jagersfontein, and others. We have to smash up everything we cannot take with us, as the farms afford shelter for scattered bands of the enemy. It is not the first time I have smashed a splendid piano to light a fire to boil my "billie-tong." But it is a sorrowful sight to see the women and children riding away and leaving their homes, though they are much better off in the camps. I do not think that the war will last longer than Christmas, if it is not finished before that, as the country is completely laid waste. It is in a terrible state and getting worse daily as the columns march along wrecking as they go. Our life on the veldt is something like this. Up every morning at 6 o'clock; get a fire lighted, and cook some mutton or "billie," and make our tea; start off at 7 o'clock, travel about ten miles, and halt at midday for about an hour; take some cold meat and biscuits, then travel on again, and halt for the night. When we get our horses picketed and fed, our first race is for wood and water, and, having got a good feed, we sit around a blazing fire, singing and spinning yarns. It is a great value at night, but life out here has its hard side too. As for instance, when one cannot get any wood or water, and has to go to bed supperless after getting no "scoff" that morning. Perhaps when one comes in from a long day's march one is sent out on outpost duty, to stand on a kopje half the night. We have no tents to sleep in now, nothing but two blankets each; but when we get down together it is very warm, no matter how cold the night; so we have not so hard times at all, and I rather like the life, always on the move. I hope that you are all well at home, but I may soon be back again myself. I have not met Ernest McGeown or Bob Spence yet. Hoping to be home after Christmas. - I am, as ever, your affectionate son. HARRY.
This page last updated 15 November 2024.