COOKE, Sir William Bryan, 8 Baronet (younger son of Sir George Cooke 7 baronet, who d. 2 June 1823). b. 3 March 1782; ed. at Ch. Ch. Ox., B.A. 1803, M.A. 1806; ensign 1 foot guards 15 Oct. 1803 to 1808 when he sold out; lieut.-col. 3 West York militia 26 Oct. 1811, col. 23 Feb. 1812 to 7 Dec. 1819; contested city of York 1818; banker at Doncaster, Retford and Worksop 1 Jany. 1819; succeeded 2 June 1823; the first mayor of Doncaster 1836, alderman 1837–8; sheriff of Yorkshire 1845; author of The seize Quartiers of the family of Bryan Cooke 1857. d. Wheatley hall near Doncaster 24 Dec. 1851. G.M. xxxvii, 185–6 (1852).
COOKE, Sir William Fothergill (eld. son of Wm. Cooke, professor of medicine at Durham Univ.) b. Ealing near London 1806; ed. at Durham school and Univ. of Edin.; ensign 39 Madras N.I. 8 Jany. 1826, resigned his commission 1836; partner with Charles Wheatstone, Nov. 1837, they patented magnetic needle telegraph 12 June 1837; laid down a telegraph between Paddington and West Drayton 1838–9, and from West Drayton to Slough 1842; invented with Wheatstone the single needle apparatus 1845; one of founders of Electro telegraph company 1846; received with Wheatstone the 4th royal Albert gold medal 1867; A.I.C.E. 21 May 1867; knighted at Windsor Castle 11 Nov. 1869; granted civil list pension of £100, 25 July 1871; author of Telegraphic Railways 1842. (m. 1838 Anna Louisa dau. of Joseph Wheatley of Treeton, Yorkshire, she was granted civil list pension of £50, 19 June 1880). d. 31 Castle st. Farnham, Surrey 25 June 1879. W. T. Jeans’s Lives of the electricians i, 134, 323 (1887); W. F. Cooke’s The electric telegraph, was it invented by professor Wheatstone? 2 vols. 1857; Authorship of the practical electric telegraph of Great Britain by Rev. T. F. Cooke 1868; Minutes of proc. of Instit. of C.E. lviii, 358–64 (1879).
Note.—The merit of initiating the idea of an international exhibition has been often warmly contested, but there is no doubt that the original proposition was made to the Committee of the Society of Arts in 1844 by Sir W. F. Cooke.
COOKE, William John. b. Dublin 11 April 1797; pupil of his uncle George Cooke the engraver; received from Society of Arts a gold medal for improvements in engraving upon steel 1826; employed upon the Annuals and other illustrated publications to about 1840 when he left England and settled at Darmstadt; engraved several pictures after Turner, Cox and Landseer. d. Darmstadt 6 April 1865.
COOKESLEY, John. Entered navy 29 Jany. 1791; captain 7 Dec. 1818, retired 1 Oct. 1846; retired R.A. 8 July 1851; invented a very simple and efficacious species of raft fully described and illustrated in the Nautical Mag. iv, 73–77 (1835). d. Rackley, Portishead near Bristol 25 Nov. 1852 aged 78.
COOKESLEY, Rev. William Gifford. b. Brasted, Kent 1 Dec. 1802; ed. at Eton and King’s coll. Cam., B.A. 1826, M.A. 1829; assistant master of Eton 1825–55; V. of Hayton, Yorkshire 1857–60; P.C. of St. Peter’s, Hammersmith 1860–8; R. of Tempsford, Beds. 22 Oct. 1868 to death; published Selections from Pindar 1838; Pindari Carmina 1844 2 vols. 1851; Selecta e Catullo 1845; A revised translation of the New Testament 1859, and 13 other works. d. Tempsford rectory 16 Aug. 1880.
COOKSON, Rev. Henry Wilkinson (6 son of Thomas Cookson of Kendal). b. Kendal 10 April 1810; ed. at Kendal, Sedbergh and St. Peter’s coll. Cam., 7 wrangler 1832, B.A. 1832, M.A. 1835, B.D. and D.D. 1848; tutor of his college, Master 3 Nov. 1847 to death; R. of Glaston, Rutland 1847–61; vice-chancellor of Univ. of Cam. 1848, 1863, 1864, 1872, 1873; member of council of the Senate almost continuously from institution of that body 1856; pres. of Cambridge Philosophical Soc. 1865–6; declined bishopric of Lichfield 1867. d. St. Peter’s college lodge, Cambridge 30 Sep. 1876.
COOKSON, Isaac. b. 1776; a glass manufacturer at Newcastle to 1845; sheriff of Newcastle 1801, alderman 22 Sep. 1807, mayor 1809–10; bought Meldon park, Northumberland for 56,900 guineas 19 April 1832; sheriff of Northumberland 1838. d. Munich 8 Oct. 1851.
COOLEY, William Desborough. F.R.G.S. 1830, hon. free member 1864; granted civil list pension of £100, 4 Oct. 1858; wrote for Lardner’s ‘Cabinet Cyclopædia’ The history of maritime and inland discovery 3 vols. 1830–1; published The world surveyed in the xix century 2 vols. 1845–8; Inner Africa laid open 1852; Physical geography, or the terraqueous globe and its phenomena 1876 and other works. d. 56 Crowndale road, Somers Town, London 1 March 1883. Proc. of Royal Geog. Soc. v, 232–3 (1883).
COOMBES, Robert. b. Vauxhall, London 1808; a waterman on river Thames; sculled his first race 4 July 1836; beat J. Kelly 4 Oct. 1838; stroke in the winning four at Liverpool regatta 1840 beating 5 crews; beat H. Clasper on the Tyne 18 Dec. 1844; beat C. Campbell 19 Aug. 1846 when he became champion of the Thames; presented with a champion belt 28 Oct. 1846; raced T. Cole for £200 a side 24 May 1852 when Cole won; won the pairs with Wilson at Thames regatta 1845; with his brother Tom Coombes beat Richard and Harry Clasper on the Thames 1847; trained the Cambridge crew 1852; never surpassed in speed and style during his time; author of Hints on rowing and training 1852. d. Kent lunatic asylum, Maidstone 25 Feb. 1860. bur. Brompton cemetery, London 7 March. I.L.N. 29 May 1852 p. 436, portrait.