Lieutenant Colonel Peter Joseph Cook (21 July 1924 – 22 December 2003) was an

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (Austral ...

officer An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," ...

antique An antique ( la, antiquus; 'old', 'ancient') is an item perceived as having value because of its aesthetic or historical significance, and often defined as at least 100 years old (or some other limit), although the term is often used loosely ...

dealer and writer, and

ABC Television ABC Television most commonly refers to: *ABC Television Network of the American Broadcasting Company, United States, or *ABC Television (Australian TV network), a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia ABC Television or ABC ...

panelist on '' For Love or Money''.

Family

Cook was born in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a me ...

, the only child of Major George Sydney "Syd" Cook and Elsie Cook (née Sheppard) His second given name, Joseph, was in honour of his paternal grandfather,

Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only a ...

Joseph Cook Sir Joseph Cook, (7 December 1860 – 30 July 1947) was an Australian politician who served as the sixth Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1913 to 1914. He was the leader of the Liberal Party from 1913 to 1917, after earlier servi ...

GCMG The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III. It is named in honour ...

, the sixth Prime Minister of Australia. Elsie, a

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

nurse, and Syd, an architect, had served abroad during World War I and were both

mentioned in dispatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

. In the six-part Australian television drama series ''

ANZAC Girls The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) was a First World War army corps of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. It was formed in Egypt in December 1914, and operated during the Gallipoli campaign. General William Birdwood comm ...

'', on

ABC1 ABC TV, formerly known as ABC1, is an Australian national public television network. It is owned and operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and is the flagship ABC Television network. The headquarters of the ABC TV channel a ...

Laura Brent Laura Brent (born 2 May 1988) is an Australian actress, best known for her role as Lilliandil in '' The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader''. Born in Melbourne, Brent attended the National Institute of Dramatic Art, where sh ...

plays Elsie Cook and

Todd Lasance Todd James Lasance (born 18 February 1985) is an Australian actor, best recognised for his roles in Australian television including Aden Jefferies on ''Home and Away'', Cam Jackson on '' Rescue: Special Ops'', Ben McMahon on ''Crownies'' and Ma ...

plays Syd Cook.

Education

Syd Cook was appointed Director of the Department of Housing and Construction in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...

and Peter was educated at

Wesley College, Perth Wesley College, informally known as Wesley, is an independent, day and boarding school for boys and girls (co-ed to Year 6 and boys only Years 7–12), situated in South Perth, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. The college is a Uniting ...

, from 1936 until 1939. After his father's transfer to Sydney, Cook attended

Newington College , motto_translation = To Faith Add Knowledge , location = Inner West and Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = A ...

from 1940 until 1942. He was the second of four generations of his family to be educated at Newington – his uncles, including The Hon. Mr Justice Cecil Cook, were amongst the first generation and his grandsons were amongst the fourth. His grandmother,

Mary Turner Cook Dame Mary Cook (née Turner; – 24 September 1950) was the wife of Australian Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Cook. Biography Early years Mary Turner was 22 years old and had been a schoolteacher for eight years when she married Joseph Cook in 188 ...

DBE, was the foundation president of the Newington College Parents' and Friends' Association.

Military service

After graduating from the

Royal Military College, Duntroon lit: Learning promotes strength , established = , type = Military college , chancellor = , head_label = Commandant , head = Brigadier Ana Duncan , principal = , city = Campbell , state ...

, in 1944, Cook served in the Australian Army in World War II and the

Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top: ...

. At the time of his retirement in 1960 he had achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Antiques

On retirement from the regular army Cook became proprietor of Grafton Galleries, in

Double Bay Double Bay is a harbourside eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 4 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district. It is the administrative centre of the local government area of the Municipalit ...

, Sydney, an antique business founded by his mother in 1945. Cook was the consultant editor of ''The Antique Buyer's Handbook for Australia'' from 1979 until 1993. He wrote a column, ''Collector's Corner'', for the ''

Australian Women's Weekly ''The Australian Women's Weekly'', sometimes known as simply ''The Weekly'', is an Australian monthly women's magazine published by Mercury Capital in Sydney. For many years it was the number one magazine in Australia before being outsold by ...

'' from 1975 until 1982. In 1987, Cook became a panelist on the television series '' For Love or Money''. The show ran for three years and the '' Sydney Morning Herald'' described him as "the viewers favourite antiques expert" whilst the ''

Canberra Times ''The Canberra Times'' is a daily newspaper in Canberra, Australia, which is published by Australian Community Media. It was founded in 1926, and has changed ownership and format several times. History ''The Canberra Times'' was launched in ...

'' saw him as being the show's "most cerebral panellist". Hartley Cook is now the third generation of the Cook family to be the proprietor of Grafton Galleries and the business is now located on Boundary Street,

Rushcutters Bay, New South Wales Rushcutters Bay is a harbourside eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 3 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Sydney. The suburb of Rushcutters B ...

.Boyac
Retrieved 14 July 2023.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cook, Peter Joseph 1924 births 2003 deaths People from Sydney People educated at Newington College Royal Military College, Duntroon graduates Australian colonels Australian Army personnel of World War II Australian military personnel of the Korean War Australian television personalities 20th-century Australian non-fiction writers