John Cook

He charged under heavy fire to rescue an officer from danger

John Cook was born in Edinburgh on 28 August 1843, the son of Alexander Shank Cook, an advocate and sheriff, and Jane, née Stirling. Educated at Edinburgh Academy, the Scottish Naval and Military Academy and Addiscombe, he received his first commission in December 1860. He went to India with the 107th Regiment and transferred to the 3rd Sikh Infantry. He served in the Umbeyla campaign in 1863 and the Hazara expedition of 1868, gaining experience of mountain warfare on the Indian frontier.

Cook became a captain in 1872 and joined the 5th Gurkhas the following year. During the Second Afghan War he served with the Kurram Field Force. At Peiwar Kotal on 2 December 1878, he distinguished himself in the attack and then went to the assistance of Major Galbraith, who was threatened by an Afghan soldier. Cook's intervention saved the officer. His Victoria Cross was presented by Major General Frederick Roberts at Ali Khel on 24 May 1879.

He continued in the campaign, fighting at Charasia and Kabul. Wounded in the left leg during an attack, he remained engaged in the operations around the Afghan capital. He received a brevet majority on 22 November 1879. On 13 December he was again wounded, this time during the fighting at Takht-i-Shah. Infection followed, and he died at Sherpur Cantonment on 19 December 1879, aged thirty-six.

Cook was buried in the cantonment cemetery at Sherpur. Memorials in Scotland, London and the former Indian Army stations preserve his name. His campaign medals record frontier service as well as the three major Afghan operations in which he took part.

Official citation

For a signal act of valour at the action of the Peiwar Kotal on the 2nd December, 1878, in having, during a very heavy fire, charged out of the entrenchments with such impetuosity that the enemy broke and fled, when, perceiving, at the close of the méleé, the danger of Major Galbraith, Assistant Adjutant-General, Kurum Column Field Force, who was in personal conflict with an Afghan soldier, Captain Cook distracted his attention to himself, and aiming a sword cut which the Douranee avoided, sprang upon him, and, grasping his throat, grappled with him. They both fell to the ground. The Douranee, a most powerful man, still endeavouring to use his rifle, seized Captain Cook’s arm in his teeth, until the struggle was ended by the man being shot through the head.