| Date of birth | (1916-12-18)18 December 1916 | ||||||||||||||||
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| Place of birth | Marylebone, England | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 28 May 1940(1940-05-28) (aged 23) | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of death | Flanders, Belgium | ||||||||||||||||
| University | University of Oxford | ||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||
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Second Lieutenant Paul Cooke (18 December 1916 – 28 May 1940) was an English international rugby union player.
Born in Marylebone, Cooke attained an honours degree in law at the University of Oxford, where he was a rugby blue. He represented Buckinghamshire in county fixtures and had just starting playing with London club Richmond when he gained an England call up for the 1939 Home Nations. For his two caps, Cooke formed a halfback partnership with Gus Walker, playing matches against Wales and Ireland, both at Twickenham.
Cooke volunteered for Army service in November, 1939. He served as a Second Lieutenant with the 1st Battalion, Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry. On 28 May 1940, with Belgium on the brink of falling, Cooke was killed while directing fire for a Bren gun section in Flanders, as they were retreating to the coast.
See also
References
- "Rugby International Killed In Action". The Citizen. 10 June 1940.
- "Oxford "Blues" Awarded". Western Mail. 27 November 1936.
- "Wales Beaten at Twickenham by Faster English Side". South Wales Weekly Argus. 23 January 1939.
- "Played, Fought, And Died For England". Daily Mirror. 9 August 1940.
External links
- Paul Cooke at ESPNscrum
- 1916 births
- 1940 deaths
- English rugby union players
- England international rugby union players
- Rugby union players from London
- Rugby union scrum-halves
- Richmond F.C. players
- Oxford University RFC players
- Alumni of the University of Oxford
- Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry officers
- British military personnel killed in World War I
- 20th-century English sportsmen