Ella Kate Cooke
Born 1881 - Died 8 Sept 1917
- Service number
- WWI 2/RESC/1266 AWMM
- Also known as
- —
- Armed force / branch
- Army AWMM
- Last rank
- Staff Nurse AWMM Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve AWMM
- War
- World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM
About
- Title
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- Forenames
- Ella Kate AWMM
- Surname
- Cooke AWMM
- Ingoa
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- Also known as
- —
- Service number
- WWI 2/RESC/1266 AWMM
- Gender
- Female AWMM
- Iwi / Hapū / Waka / Rohe
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- Religion
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Images
Documents
About birth
- Birth
- 1881 BDM
- Date of birth
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- Place of birth
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- Birth notes
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- Address before enlistment
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- Post war occupation
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- Next of kin
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- Relationship status
- Unknown AWMM Single AWMM
Wars and conflicts
- War
- World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM
- Campaign
- 1914-1918 AWMM WW1 AWMM
- Armed force / branch
- Army AWMM
- Service number
- WWI 2/RESC/1266 AWMM
- Military service
- Promotions/ Postings/ Transfers
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Military decorations
- Medals and Awards
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Training and Enlistment
- Military training
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- Branch Trade Proficiency
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- Enlistment
- WW1 1914 AWMM Nurse AWMM
- Age on enlistment
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- Occupation before enlistment
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Embarkations
- Embarkation details
- WW1 Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service AWMM
Prisoner of war
- Capture details
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- Days interned
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- Liberation date
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- POW liberation details
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- Liberation Repatriation
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- POW serial number
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Medical history
- Medical notes
- Accidental Death, Cause of Death AWMM
Accident on tramway line, concussion of the brain and fractured skull AWMM
Last known rank
- Last rank
- Staff Nurse AWMM
Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve AWMM - Last rank
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Biographical information
- Ella Kate Cooke was born in Auckland in 1881. She attended Grafton School and completed her nursing training at Auckland Hospital in 1907. She subsequently worked at Cook Hospital in Gisborne and, from 1912, at Hawera Hospital. In January 1914 she was appointed a Native Health Nurse with the Public Health Department, based at Ngāruawāhia and travelling through a large district that included Kawhia, Mercer, Te Kūiti and areas south of Morrinsville.
In July 1914 Cooke and her twin sister, Lily, left New Zealand aboard the Niagara for a private visit to North America and England. World War I began while they were travelling. After reaching London, Cooke offered her nursing services, but trained nurses were not initially being accepted in sufficient numbers by the British authorities.
Writing from London on 23 October 1914, Cooke described the war as “overwhelming & terrifying in every way” and reflected on the fall of Antwerp and Ostend, the secrecy surrounding British military operations and the uncertainty of how the conflict would end (Letter to ‘Charlie’ from London, England, dated 23 October 1914, MS-1994-36-1).
In November 1914 Cooke was one of 14 New Zealand nurses who travelled to France with the French Flag Nursing Corps. She initially worked at a hospital in Bernay, near Rouen, and later served with Ambulance 14 near Verneuil-sur-Marne.
In a letter dated 31 December 1914, Cooke described wounded men arriving directly from the trenches. Some had reportedly not removed their boots for months and were suffering from severely swollen and frozen feet. She feared that many would lose their feet or legs. Cooke also wrote compassionately about the wounded German prisoners under her care, noting that they treated her respectfully and asked the French staff to send them the “Nurse Anglaise” (Typescript of letter dated 31 December 1914, MS-1994-36-5).
Writing to her aunt on 6 April 1915, Cooke explained that the difficulty experienced by trained nurses seeking British appointments had led her to serve under the French Government. She criticised the early reliance on inexperienced volunteers while qualified nurses were overlooked, although she acknowledged that working within the French system had broadened her professional experience (Letter to ‘Auntie’, dated 6 April 1915, MS-1994-36-2).
Cooke’s surviving correspondence is preserved in Ella Cooke – Letters, 1914–1915 (MS-1994-36), held by Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira. The collection also includes letters to her cousin Florrie dated 5 May and 23 July 1915 (MS-1994-36-3 and MS-1994-36-4). The letters document her travels, nursing work and observations of wartime England and France and were made accessible through the Letter Wall section of Pou Kanohi New Zealand at War.
After approximately six months with the French Flag Nursing Corps, Cooke joined Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve. During training at Connaught Hospital in Aldershot, she described the severe demands placed upon the nursing staff:
“The work is frightfully hard & we’re a ridiculously small staff. Just now I’m on night duty & I’m responsible for 240 beds. I’ve only 3 orderlies to help me with all these patients. It’s killing work.”
In September 1915 Cooke was posted to No. 17 General Hospital in Alexandria, Egypt. The hospital was established in a large converted college and cared for substantial numbers of soldiers evacuated from Gallipoli and other theatres of war. Cooke remained there for approximately two years and was remembered by colleagues as a happy and popular member of the nursing staff.
On 8 September 1917, while serving at No. 17 General Hospital, Cooke was accidentally killed after stepping into the path of an approaching train on the railway line behind the hospital. She suffered a fractured skull and died at the scene. Cooke was accorded a full military funeral and buried in Alexandria (Hadra) War Memorial Cemetery, grave B.25.
Cooke is also commemorated in the Five Sisters Window at York Minster, dedicated to women of the British Empire who died while nursing during World War I, and on the Grafton School Roll of Honour. Her story featured in Auckland War Memorial Museum’s 2008 installation In Memory and in Scars on the Heart: Anzacs in Egypt 1914–18, where a photograph and an extract from one of her letters were displayed. Her life and service are also documented in the Online Cenotaph story Ella Cooke. AWMM
About death
- Death
- 8 Sept 1917 AWMM
- Date of death
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- Age at death
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- Place of death
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- Cause of death
- Accidental Death AWMM
- Death notes
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- Cemetery
- Alexandria (Hadra) War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt AWMM B. 25 AWMM
- Cemetery name
- —
- Grave reference
- —
- Obituary
- Obituary: Kai Tiaki January 1918 p. 24
"Miss Ella Kate Cooke, a New Zealand nurse, who„has been on military duty for the last two and a-half years, is reported to have been instantaneously killed at Alexandra, Egypt, while on active service. Miss Cooke was the daughter of the late Henry Cooke, of Auckland, and was on the staff of the Napier Hospital before leaving for the war. She served for some time in France before going to Egypt." (Source: THE SOCIAL ROUND. Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 1208, 26 December 1917, Page 2)
"SISTER E. K. COOKE.
Sister E. K. Cooke, who has been in service at Alexandria, is reported by cable to have died accidentally. Sister Cooke is one of the noble women who have given their lives in the service of the country. She was in London at the outbreak of war, and has served since, first with the French Service Militia near Rouen, later at Aldershot, and then at the General Hospital at Alexandria. Sister Cooke was trained at the Auckland Hospital, and her death closes a life devoted to the public in peace times, and during the war to the soldiers wounded in battle."
(Source: OBITUARY. Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 222, 17 September 1917, Page 4) AWMM - Memorial name
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- Memorial reference
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Memorial
- Memorial name
- Memorial window, Five Sisters Window, north transept, York Minster, York, England AWMM
- Roll of Honour, Grafton School, Auckland, held in the Auckland War Memorial Museum AWMM
Related objects
Sources
- External links
- Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
http://www.cwgc.org
Sources Used - Base records file
https://collections.archives.govt.nz/web/arena/search/#/entity/aims-archive/R22422350
Further Reference - Births, Deaths and Marriages (New Zealand) Historical Records online
https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/search/
Sources Used - New Zealand Military Nursing: New Zealand Army Nursing Service - Royal New Zealand Nursing Corps
http://web.archive.org/web/20220126041404/https://www.nzans.org/index.htm
Further Reference - York Minster, Five Sisters Window. In memory of overseas nurses. (1925, 3 July). Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, p. 140.
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=KT19250701.2.44&srpos
Further Reference - Online Cenotaph Feature
http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/features/ella-cooke
Further Reference - THE SOCIAL ROUND. Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 1208, 26 December 1917, Page 2
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SUNCH19171226.2.4
Further Reference - OBITUARY. Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 222, 17 September 1917, Page 4
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19170917.2.33
Further Reference - Auckland War Memorial Museum. Exhibition. 2008 "In Memory". Installation commissioned for the 90th Armistice anniversary. Curator, Peter Kirby.
https://web.archive.org/web/20100522022540/http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/891/about-the-exhibition
Further Reference
- Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
- References
- New Zealand Military Nursing - A History of the R.N.Z.N.C. Boer War to Present Day
- Rees. P. (2008). The other ANZACs: nurses at war, 1914-1918. Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin.
- Cooke, Ella. Letters, 1914 - 1915. Auckland War Memorial Museum Library. MS 94/36.
- Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand. Wellington, N.Z.: Watkins.
Obituary: Kai Tiaki January 1918 p. 24 - Service Women Project: Sponsorship to research this record was kindly provided by the Auckland Returned Services Association, Returned Servicewomen's Branch; Marjorie Traill, Dorothy Grant, Daphne Shaw and Margaret Woollett.
- McNabb, S. (2015). 100 years New Zealand military nursing : New Zealand Army nursing service : Royal New Zealand Nursing Corps, 1915-2015. Hawke's Bay, N.Z.: Sherayl McNabb.
- Harper, G., Clements, C., & Johns., R. (2019). For King and Other Countries: The New Zealanders Who Fought in Other Services in the First World War. Auckland, New Zealand: Massey University Press.
p. 54, 88, 175-7 - Auckland War Memorial Museum. Exhibition. 2008 "In Memory". Installation commissioned for the 90th Armistice anniversary. Curator, Peter Kirby.
- Tolerton, J. (2017). Make her praises heard afar : New Zealand women overseas in World War One. Wellington, New Zealand : Booklovers Books.
- Rogers, A. (2003). While You're Away: New Zealand Nurses at War 1899-1948. Auckland, N.Z.: Auckland University Press.
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