We are so privileged to hear from Heather Cook the daughter of Alfred Cook who has kindly furnished us with details about her father.
“I understand that my nephew Simon Cook had been in touch with you regarding my father Alfred John Gale Cook who was one of the 6 survivors from the R101 disaster in France. I will try and give you some history but he didn’t talk very much of the past, and with me not being born until 1947 I didn’t know about his very early years.
Alfred was born at the General Lying in Hospital in Lambeth, London 29-3-1907, his father being a blacksmith at the Bedlam Hospital in Lambeth. (Now the Imperial War Museum). How and when he arrived at Shortstown I do not know.* He was an Engineer in one of the Engine pods on the night of the crash, fortunately for him he had swopped shifts that night with another crew member who had been ill, and that person didn’t survive.
He did recall that when the airship was down he had to push burning girders out of his way to get out of the pod, which severely burnt his hands.
He also said that he fled across a field and on turning round spotted sparks and flames following him. (He had in fact been on fire). He was so confused he ran into the side of a cow before being found by a local farmer. (I have seen photographs of him covered head to foot in bandages where he had been burnt). He was married at the time but he never mentioned to whom as she died of cancer shortly afterwards.
Alfred Cook in hospital at Beauvais, France, immediately after the R101 crashed. (Image taken from The Mirror Oct 6th 1930)
He married my mother Joan Denman on Christmas Eve 1938. My mother was a fabric worker at the aerodrome but was actually from Sidmouth in Devon and her work was obviously for the war effort at the time. I know that during WW2 he was ranked a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm (Must have been in the reserves as I can remember seeing his uniform with 2 wavy stripes around the sleeves.) After the war he continued working for the Air Ministry in aircraft maintenance, where I was born near RAF Wroughton, Wiltshire. We moved up to Wellington in Shropshire again for a RAF station, I think The Wrekin was mentioned. In 1951 we moved to Gloucestershire when he was posted to RAF Aston Downs and when that closed RAF Kemble where the Red Arrows were first formed. As he was by now a Senior person at the base I often got taken to the air stations during the school holidays and was given flights in some wonderful old aircraft – DC3’s & Seaprince I recall.
In January 1958 he was awarded the MBE by Queen Elizabeth for his services to the Air Ministry, I was fortunately chosen to go with my parents to visit Buckingham Palace for the ceremony, being the youngest of the family. He retired as a Senior Technical Superintendent – Royal Air force in the late 60’s and bought a guest house in Sidmouth before retiring to Alicante in Spain. He returned to the UK in the 80’s again to Gloucestershire and died aged 91 on the 7th November 1998.”
Our grateful thanks go to Heather Cook for sharing this information about her father.
*It is recorded that Alfred was working on the R101 as early as December 1928. The electoral registers tell us that he was living in Shortstown in 1930, 1931 and 1932.