Remembering the Fallen: on this day in 1916, Lieutenant Cyril Edward Cook, 2nd Battalion, the Royal Sussex Regiment, died from grievous wounds received a week earlier during the Battle of the Somme.

The eldest son of a London solicitor, he attended Roysse’s School in Abingdon, where he became Head Boy and won the Abingdon Exhibition at Pembroke College, Oxford - although the war intervened and he did not complete his studies. He joined the Public Schools Brigade, from which he received his commission. At the outbreak of the Great War, he and his younger brother were both commissioned into the Royal Sussex Regiment. His brother, Lieutenant Leslie Cook, was seriously wounded at the Battle of Loos, but did survive the war.

Lieutenant Cook was involved in the fighting on the Western Front from August of 1915, and was noted for his good scouting and skilful leading of patrols during that winter. In January of 1916 he was recognized by the Major-General commanding his division. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme he was seriously wounded, and despite efforts to save his life he succumbed to his injuries a week later. He is buried in the Chocques Military Cemetery in France.

Cyril, from Wargrave-on-Thames, was 23 years old.