By Liz Pidgeon
Outside the French village of Bullecourt, a bronze statue The Bullecourt Digger stands in the Australian Memorial Park. It reminds visitors of the role our Anzacs played in the Battle of Bullecourt under the British command in early April 1917. Over 3,000 Australians were wounded or killed in the First Bullecourt Battle on April 11, including the life of Phillip Cook who today is remembered on the Whitttesea War Memorial.
Phillip Edward Cook was the youngest son of seven children. His father, Rev, Richard Osborn Cook was a respected Methodist Minister. The family had already travelled widely with his oldest brother William born in New Norfolk, Tasmania before the family moved to Victoria. Other siblings were born in Amherst, Kilmore, Colac and St Arnaud by the time his mother Elizabeth Jane (nee Trevelcock) gave birth to Philip in Coburg in 1881.
In the years that followed, with his immediate big sisters Philip enjoyed three years attending the Castlemaine State School.
By 1903 the family had settled in Richmond and Phillip is registered on the electoral roll there working as a salesman. In 1909 he had moved out of home and had found work with his brother William in Kinglake working as an orchardist.
In July 1915, following news of the invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula, Philip volunteered. He was 33 years old. He described himself as a farmer on his enlistment papers but he was probably still employed at the Kinglake orchard where he was registered on the electoral roll through to 1919. His father listed as residing in Richmond was his next of kin. He was soon posted to the Castlemaine Military Camp where he worked as a company clerk for the Federal government office and was promoted to Corporal.
On December 4 1915, Phillip married Miss Jessie May Downie at his father’s house in Richmond. Jessie was the daughter of a Whittlesea orchardist James Downie and possibly descended from the pioneer settlers to the area in the 1850s. Jessie was one of three daughters and was a school teacher in Whittlesea in 1909 before returning to home duties, probably to help out her widowed father.
Philip embarked on the HMAT A32 Themistocles on 28 January 1916 with the 5th Battalion, 14th reinforcements which were soon merged as part of the 46th Battalion and was soon on the French battlefields. The Battalion were part of the Battle of Pozieres where in its aftermath in August Philip was wounded, but then recovered to report back to duty by December. The Australian War Memorial’s abbreviated unit war histories’ reports that “after Pozières, the battalion spent the period up until March 1917 alternating between duty in the trenches and training and rest behind the lines. On 11 April it took part in the attack mounted against the heavily defended village of Bullecourt – part of the formidable Hindenburg Line to which the Germans had retreated during February and March. Devoid of surprise, and dependent upon the support of unreliable tanks, the attack had little chance of success; after managing to fight through to its objectives, the 46th was forced to withdraw with heavy casualties.”
Philip was reported missing that same day – defending the village of Bullecourt. This was later ruled as his date of death. He was 35 years old. This battle came to be regarded as the worst Australian defeat of the war. Many Australians were also taken prisoner of war that day. (Reading for this project also brought to light the name of Lance Corporal Samuel Jackson Wadeson who was born in Diamond Creek and enlisted from Meekatharra, Western Australia. He was also killed at Bullecourt on the 11th of April 1917. He was aged 30 years and is remembered at the Quent Road Cemetery.)
Almost a year to the day following Philip’s death, in April 1918 the Governor General Sir Ronald Munro Ferguson unveiled an honour roll at Castlemaine Town Hall which included 373 names – one of which was P E Cook.
But it is probably through Phillip’s marriage to Jessie Downie that he will be always remembered as one of Whittlesea’s sons.
Soon after his death, the Shire of Whittlesea wrote to Jess expressing their sympathy at her bereavement.
On Friday 6th December 1918 a war service certificate or illuminated address was formerly presented to Phillip’s family, most likely his widow Jessie at the Mechanics’ Institute at Mernda by the State Premier Mr Lawson. Local Councillor – Cr Browne is reported in the Preston Leader as “father” of the idea and donor of the first 100 service certificates. It is estimated that there were about 300 total enlistments for the Shire.
It is presumed that members of the family donated the certificate to the City of Whittlesea Civic collection sometime before 2000, when it was photographed with a white frame. At this time, the photo came to light as part of a City of Whittlesea Centenary of Federation project to collect local stories and memorabilia. Items collected for the project were transferred to Yarra Plenty Regional Library in care as part of the J W Payne Local History collection held at Mill Park Library. The certificate has since been reframed with a mat border and a natural wooden frame and border. It now hangs in the City of Whittlesea Civic Centre.
According to a study made of the war service certificates in 1997 by Elizabeth Willis and reported in the Australian War Memorial Journal, this certificate was an early and popular design. Drawn by Goldsworthy and Davey and printed by D.W. Paterson, it remained very popular until well after the Armistice. The certificate shows two soldiers in khaki on a battlefield in front of the Australian flag. One has fallen facing the enemy; the other stands with his bayonet. The soldiers are pictured in a shield, flanked by the furled flags of the Allies. The inscription commemorating the volunteer is superimposed on an outline map of Australia. It includes a border of yellow wattle, the national flower. The Australian flag appears predominant among the Allied flags; its stave is crossed in front of the Union Jack. At the bottom of the certificate a photo of troop ships and possibly troops in the foreground leave port.
After the United States entered the war in April 1917, the design was reworked to include the US flag, which this one does. The two soldiers were redrawn at the same time. The fallen soldier now appears more emaciated, more vulnerable. In contrast, the standing soldier takes a slightly more aggressive stance, looking more squarely into the centre of the picture.
Finally the certificate is emblazoned with the words “Shire of Whittlesea” and a red seal with the words “He answered his country’s call” prominent. The same words were placed in a death notice in the Spectator and Methodist Chronicle to announce his death.
Phillip was also commemorated on the Memorial Arch at Whittlesea. Interestingly, Phillip’s father-in-law Jack Downie, a Shire of Whittlesea councillor was to play a role in establishing local war memorials in Whittlesea – and remembering Phillip. His father the Rev. Cook passed away at Richmond in 1923 aged 92.
Community fundraising led to the Soldiers Statue “Standing at ease” installed in Laurel Street, at the foot of Church Street. It was the second of three memorials erected following World War I (the first was a Church of England Memorial Hall)
The unveiling ceremony took place on 20 April 1926 by Senator Elliot with 300 people in attendance. The granite base of the statue contains the names of those from the Whittlesea district who served during World War I, including those killed.
The committee formed to erect the soldiers’ statue had funds left over and proposed to the Shire of Whittlesea that a Memorial Arch be erected in Forest Street, at the foot of Walnut Street. Under the supervision of the Shire Engineer, the arch was constructed with two stone bollards on either side. It bears the names of 36 soldiers from the Whittlesea district that died during active service in World War I including that of P. E. Cook.
The Arch was formally opened on the 7 March 1927 by the State Governor, Lord Somers. The town was decorated with flags and bunting for the event, and ex- servicemen formed a guard of honour at the Arch flanked by school children.
An avenue of honour was also established presumably around this time. It consisted of 36 trees, each bearing a name plate in memory of a fallen soldier – corresponding with the names on the Memorial Arch. By 1936 twenty trees and their name plates were missing. Efforts were made to replace the trees.
Philip is also remembered at the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, France. Jessie remarried and passed away in Malvern in 1975. Local members of her family cherished the certificate eighty odd years after Phillip’s death and deemed it significant to donate to the City of Whittlesea’s civic history collection. Lest we forget.
SOURCES
Australian War Memorial 46th Battalion http://www.awm.gov.au/units/unit_11233.asp
Australian War Memorial, The Battles for Bullecourt https://www.awm.gov.au/blog/2007/04/03/the-battles-for-bullecourt/
Australians on the Western Front, Visiting Bullecourt, the Bullecourt digger http://www.ww1westernfront.gov.au/bullecourt/visiting-bullecourt/the-bullecourt-digger.php
City of Whittlesea Heritage citation report 2009 http://tinyurl.com/n2re3nq
Jones, Michael Nature’s Plenty: a history of the City of Whittlesea North Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1992 p 200 – 202.
Kendall, Paul Bullecourt 1917 breaching the Hindenburg Line, Port Stroud, Gloucestshire, England, 2010
MEMORIAL ARCH AND AVENUE OF HONOR. (1935, August 9). Advertiser (Hurstbridge, Vic. : 1922 – 1939), p. 1. Retrieved November 28, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article56840060
Monuments Australia: Castlemaine Town Hall Honour Roll from http://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/conflict/ww1/display/98476-castlemaine-town-hall-honour-roll
National Archives of Australia: First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920: B2455, COOK E
The AIF Project Phillip Edward Cook from https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=61026
The AIF Project Samuel Jackson Wadeson from https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=309864
Victoria Death Index 1921 – 1985 Death for Richard Osborn Cook Vic 1923/3261
Victoria Death Index 1921 – 1985 Death for Jessie May Rolands Vic 1975/23548
Victoria Marriage Index 1921 – 1942 Marriage for Jessie May Cook Vic 1924/1825
Victorian Pioneer Index 1836 – 1888 Birth for Phillip Edward Cook Vic 1881/15246
Wedding Bells. (1915, December 31). Spectator and Methodist Chronicle (Melbourne, Vic. : 1914 – 1918), p. 1849. Retrieved November 27, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article154174110
Whittlesea Shire News. (1918, December 14). Northcote Leader (Vic. : 1914 – 1918), p. 3. Retrieved November 27, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article126179941
Withycombe, Andrew City of Whittlesea Civic History Collection
Willis, Elizabeth Changing images of valour, 1915-1923: honour certificates from the First World War Journal of the Australian War Memorial, October 1997 from http://www.awm.gov.au/journal/J31/willis/
This story also appears in “Fine Spirit and Pluck: World War One Stories from Banyule, Nillumbik and Whittlesea” published by Yarra Plenty Regional Library, August 2016
