Name: Donald Whitman Cook Rank: Private Service No: F/7101 Service: Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada Date of Birth: October 16, 1918 Place of Birth: Central Chebogue, Yarmouth Co., NS Date of Enlistment: September 4, 1939 Place of Enlistment: Yarmouth, NS Address At Enlistment: Central Chebogue, Yarmouth Co., NS Age at Enlistment: 20 Height: 5 feet, 7½ inches Weight: 140 lbs. Complexion: Medium Eyes: Brown Hair: Black Previous Military: 6th AA Battery, Royal Canadian Artillery, Yarmouth, NS Trade: Farmer Marital Status: Single (at enlistment) Religion: Baptist Next of Kin: Mildred Belle Cook (Mother) Central Chebogue, Yarmouth Co., NS Date of Death: October 13, 1944 Age at Death: 26 Cemetery: Bergen-Op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery (Noord-Brabant, Netherlands) Grave Reference: 1. G. 8. The 26th name on the WWII list of the Yarmouth War Memorial Commemorated on page 278 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance Page is displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on June 15 Private Donald Cook was the son of Frank G. and Mildred Belle Cook, of Central Chebogue, Yarmouth Co., Nova Scotia. He married Elizabeth Madeline Cook, of Central Chebogue on March 24, 1940. They had three children, Wayne Whitman Cook, Gregory Morton Cook, and Donald Fraser Cook. Two brothers, Robert and Kenneth also served during WWII. Donald left school at age sixteen and worked on the family farm for the five years prior to his enlistment. His spare time hobby was playing the trumpet. He liked softball, baseball, and hockey. On enlistment he was assessed as a very pleasant young man of very superior intelligence, very bright and alert. He had been proposed as an Officer candidate; however, his education was insufficient. Following his service in Canada he embarked Halifax on June 17, 1944 and disembarked in the United Kingdom on June 24, 1944. He disembarked in France on September 22, 1944 and joined the lack Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada on September 28, 1944. ‘Black Friday’ was the nickname given by 1st Battalion the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada to the date October 13, 1944. On that day during the battle of the Scheldt in the Netherlands near Hoogerheide, the Regiment attacked German positions on a raised railway embankment across 1,200 yards of open beet fields and suffered 145 casualties, including 56 dead. Twenty-seven were taken prisoner. One company of 90 men was reduced to just four survivors. Private Cook was killed in action on October 13, 1944. He was buried on October 27 in Ossendrecht, a village in the Dutch province of North Brabant, located in the municipality of Woensdrecht, about 12 km south east of Bergen op Zoom in plot 2, row1, grave 22. In 1946 his remains were reburied at the Bergen- Op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery. Sources and Information: Commonwealth War Graves Commission Veterans Affairs Canada