SKELTON - IN - CLEVELAND
IN HISTORY
"WE WILL REMEMBER THEM"

Rifleman FRANCIS JOSEPH COOK.

40609, 1st Bn., Royal Irish Rifles.

who died, aged 31, on the 16th of August 1917.

Son of Frank and Mary Cook, of Harome, Nawton; husband of Hannah Ellen Cook, of Nunnington, York.


Tyne Cot Memorial. Nr Ypres.

F J Cook appears on the Skelton War Memorial and the Church plaque gives his name and Regiment.
No other connection to Skelton yet traced.

The 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles were attached to the 25th Brigade, 8th Division.
The Division fought in the Third Battle of Ypres which was a meticulously planned,British offensive.
It was launched on 31 July 1917 and continued until the fall of Passchendaele village on 6 November.
The offensive resulted in gains for the Allies but was by no means the breakthrough which Field Marshal Haig intended. Such gains as were made came at great cost in human terms.
Exceptional rains turned the battlefield to mud that bogged down tanks.
No major offensive could be resumed until the 16th August when the Battle of Langemarck saw four days of fierce fighting which resulted in small gains for the British, but heavy casualties.

The Tyne Cot memorial commemorates those with no known grave from August 16th 1917 on, and there are 34,870 names recorded.

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