Born 2 May 1868 at Bradford, Yorks, the eldest son of Henry James Cooke, a wool merchant of Summerfield, Ilkley. He was educated at Giggleswick School and matriculated from New College, Oxford, graduating with second-class honours in chemistry in the final school of natural science. He then acted for a short time as university demonstrator of anatomy; he took an active part in social life, obtained his "blue" for cross-country running, and was president of the university skating club and medallist of the National Skating Association. He was also prominent in the football field and as an alpine climber. He received his medical education at the London Hospital, where he filled the posts of house surgeon and receiving-room officer, and he was for a time clinical assistant at the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields. In 1895 he moved to Cambridge and joined in partnership with W Warburton Wingate, MD. In December 1903 he was appointed assistant surgeon at Addenbrooke's Hospital, becoming surgeon in December 1913, and being placed in charge of the ophthalmic department in June 1919 on the retirement of G E Wherry, FRCS. Having accepted a commission in 1908 as a major, RAMC(T), *à la suite*, Cooke was called up at the beginning of the European war, serving at first on the staff of the first eastern general hospital, and afterwards as surgeon at No 55 General Hospital and at several casualty clearing stations in France. He retired with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. After the war Cooke became a Fellow of the Association of Surgeons and served on its council 1926-28. From 1925 he was a member of the editorial committee of the British Journal of Surgery, was also president of the Cambridge and Huntingdon branch of the British Medical Association, and was the official teacher of surgery in Cambridge University. In 1918 Cooke successfully performed a serious operation on Evelyn, wife of Morland Agnew, and it was on Mrs Agnew's recovery that Mr Agnew conceived the idea of presenting to Cambridge an up-to-date nursing home, the Evelyn Nursing Home. It was due to Cooke's energy and enthusiasm that this idea was brought to a successful conclusion. For some years Addenbrooke's had been in need of extension, and it was largely due to Cooke's driving force that the appeal for £90,000 met with success; and he had the satisfaction of seeing the hospital adequately equipped with eye wards. Even as late as the week before he died, he was at work on a health insurance scheme for undergraduates of the university. He married on 2 August 1894 Lucy Vivien, only daughter of John Collyer of Edgbaston. He died suddenly from heart failure on 13 March 1933 survived by his widow, two sons, and a daughter. His eldest son was killed in the Vanguard disaster at Scapa Flow in 1917, and his youngest son at Dunkirk in 1940. He left £50 each to the London Hospital, the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, the Ely diocesan fund and the Harvey Goodwin Home. Publications:- *Groundwork of surgery*. Cambridge, 1919. Two cases of acute lobar pneumonia treated with anti-pneumococcal serum. *Brit med J* 1897, 1, 1278. Lymphaticostomy in peritonitis. *Ibid* 1924, 1, 1048. Ectasia following conical cornea-excision of elliptical portion. *Trans Ophthal Soc UK* 1912, 32, 194.