Cook, Private James

Service highlights

  • Name: Private James Cook
  • Service number: 190114
  • Unit: Canadian Infantry (Eastern Ontario Regiment), 21st Battalion
  • Born: 3 February 1885
  • Died: 25 January 1918, age 32
  • Burial: La Targette British Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France, Grave I. G. 26
  • Overseas service notes: sailed for England 28 June 1916 aboard RMS Olympic,

A Life and Service Remembered

James Cook was born in Usborne Township and grew up in St. Marys. In town, he worked as a labourer and delivery wagon driver. He married in 1905, built a home life, and later moved to St. Thomas where he worked as a fireman.

When he enlisted in 1916, he was not a teenager chasing adventure. He was a grown man with years of work behind him and people depending on him at home. After training in England, he reached the front with the 21st Battalion in the spring of 1917. Within weeks, in the hard fighting around Lens, he was badly wounded by shrapnel to the head and left eye and spent months recovering in hospitals before he was fit to return.

In January 1918, he made it back to his battalion in the Vimy sector. Four days later, he was killed by enemy shellfire. He now rests at La Targette British Cemetery, near Arras, among hundreds of Commonwealth graves, a quiet place that still speaks to how costly those months on the line could be.

Major battles and operations

  • Lens sector, July 1917 (where he was wounded)
  • Vimy sector, January 1918 (where he returned to the line and was killed)

Learn More

  • Veterans Affairs Canada, Canadian Virtual War Memorial profile for Private James Cook (service no. 190114).
  • Imperial War Museums, Lives of the First World War entry for James Cook (service no. 190114).
  • Veterans Affairs Canada, La Targette British Cemetery background and location notes.
  • The Fallen by Richard Holt, 190114 Private J. Cook Pg 13