Ella Kate Cooke
I whānau mai i te 1881 - I mate atu i te 8 Sept 1917
- Nama Hōia
- WWI 2/RESC/1266 AWMM
- Ingoa kārangaranga
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- Te Ope o Tū / te peka
- Army AWMM
- Te tūnga whakamutunga
- Staff Nurse AWMM Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve AWMM
- Pakanga
- World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM
E pā ana ki
- Taitara
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- Ngā ingoa tuatahi
- Ella Kate AWMM
- Ingoa whānau
- Cooke AWMM
- Ingoa
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- Ingoa kārangaranga
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- Nama Hōia
- WWI 2/RESC/1266 AWMM
- Ira tangata
- Female AWMM
- Iwi / Hapū / Waka / Rohe
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- Pono
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Mātātuhi
Ngā tuhinga
Te whānautanga
- Whānautanga mai
- 1881 BDM
- Rā i whānau mai ai
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- Wāhi Whānau
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- Tuhinga mō te whānautanga
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- Wāhi noho i mua i te whakaurunga
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- Mahi whai muri i te pakanga
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- Uri kiritahi
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- Mēnā he hoa rangatira tōna
- Unknown AWMM Single AWMM
Ngā pakanga me ngā whawhai
- Pakanga
- World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM
- Kauhanga riri
- 1914-1918 AWMM WW1 AWMM
- Te Ope o Tū / te peka
- Army AWMM
- Nama Hōia
- WWI 2/RESC/1266 AWMM
- Urunga ki te ope taua
- Whakapikinga / Tukunga / Whakawhitinga
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Ngā tohu taumata rau ope taua
- Mētara me ngā Tohu
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Te Whakangungu me te Urunga atu
- Whakangungu ope taua
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- Branch Trade Proficiency
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- Te urunga
- WW1 1914 AWMM Nurse AWMM
- Pakeke i te whakaurunga
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- Mahi i mua i te ekenga waka
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Te maha o ngā ekenga waka
- Taipitopito ekenga waka
- WW1 Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service AWMM
Mauhere o te pakanga
- Kia mau ki ngā taipitopito
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- Ngā rā i mauherehia ai
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- Rā i puta ai
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- Ngā kōrero mō te puta i te mauhere pakanga
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- Te rā i whakahokia atu ngā hōia i mauherehia ai
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- Nama motuhake mō te mauhere pakanga
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Whakapapa hauora
- Tuhinga hauora
- Accidental Death, Cause of Death AWMM
Accident on tramway line, concussion of the brain and fractured skull AWMM
Te tūnga whakamutunga e mōhiotia ana
- Te tūnga whakamutunga
- Staff Nurse AWMM
Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve AWMM - Te tūnga whakamutunga
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Kōrero taurongo
- 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
Te matenga
- Matenga
- 8 Sept 1917 AWMM
- Rā i mate ai
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- Pakeke i te matenga
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- Wāhi Mate
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- Te momo matenga
- Accidental Death AWMM
- Tuhipoka mō te matenga
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- Urupā
- Alexandria (Hadra) War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt AWMM B. 25 AWMM
- Ingoa o te urupā
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- Tohutoro kōhatu urupā
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- Pānui Matenga
- 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 - Ingoa maumaharatanga
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- Tohutoro maumaharatanga
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Maumaharatanga
- Ingoa maumaharatanga
- 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
Mea e whai hononga ai
Ngā mātāwai
- Hononga ki waho
- 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.
- Ngā tuhinga
- 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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