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. It is 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 ...

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," fro ...

antique An antique () 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 to describe any object that i ...

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 language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, 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 "" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as part ...

Joseph Cook Sir Joseph Cook (7 December 1860 – 30 July 1947) was an Australian politician and trade unionist who served as the sixth Prime Minister of Australia, prime minister of Australia from 1913 to 1914. He held office as the leader of the Fusion L ...

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

, the sixth

Prime Minister of Australia The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister is the chair of the Cabinet of Australia and thus the head of the Australian Government, federal executive government. Under the pr ...

. Elsie, a

Red Cross The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...

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) 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 of t ...

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

ANZAC Girls ''ANZAC Girls'' is an Australian television drama series that first screened on ABC1 on 10 August 2014. The six-part series tells the rarely told true stories of the nurses serving with the Australian Army Nursing Service at Alexandria, Lemnos, a ...

'', 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 (broadcasting), flagship ABC Television (Australian TV network), A ...

, Laura Brent 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 M ...

plays Syd Cook.

Education

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

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

and Peter was educated at

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

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

Newington College Newington College is a multi-campus Independent school, independent Uniting Church in Australia, Uniting Church Single-sex education, single-sex and Mixed-sex education, co-educational Pre-school education, early learning, Primary school, primar ...

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

Military service

After graduating from the

Royal Military College, Duntroon The Royal Military College, Duntroon, also known simply as Duntroon, is the Australian Army's Officer (armed forces), officer training establishment. It was founded at Duntroon, Australian Capital Territory, Duntroon in Canberra, Australian Capi ...

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

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

. 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 Municipality o ...

, 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 simply as ''The Weekly'', is an Australian monthly women's magazine published by Are Media in Sydney and founded in 1933. For many years it was the number one magazine in Australia before bein ...

'' 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 ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper in ...

'' 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 1 ...

'' 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 inner-east 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 Ba ...

.Boyac
Retrieved 14 July 2023.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cook, Peter Joseph 1924 births 2003 deaths 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