-H.M.S. Hood Crew Information-
H.M.S. Crew List

It is estimated that as many as 18,000 men served aboard the 'Mighty Hood' during the operational portion of her 21 year career. Unfortunately, there is no surviving official single listing of ALL men who served in her. Here you will find our attempt at creating such a listing. We are using the few, fragmentary crew lists known to exist, Navy Lists, various official reports, public records, and most importantly of all, inputs from the families of former crew.

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John Ernest Cooke

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Date of birth: 7 April 1899
Place of birth: Bicester, Oxfordshire, England
Previous occupation: Joined from school
Service: Royal Navy
Rank: Engineer Lieutenant
Joined Hood: 15th August 1927
Left Hood: 8th November 1928








Biographical Information: John Cooke joined the Royal Navy as a Boy Artificer, aged 15, in January 1915. After training, and over eight years service as a rating, ashore and afloat, in war and peacetime, he was promoted to commissioned rank in 1923. He held the rank of Engineer Lieutenant during his fifteen months' service in HMS Hood from 1927 to 1928. Further service in destroyers, cruisers and the battleship Royal Oak saw him promoted to Engineer Commander in 1936. The early years of World War Two saw him serving ashore, but in 1943, as Chief Engineer of the aircraft carrier Furious, he was mentioned in dispatches following that ships attack on the battleship Tirpitz. John Cooke was promoted to Engineer Captain in 1946, and to Engineer Rear Admiral in 1953 one of very few former ratings to achieve such high rank. His son, and a grandson, also joined the Royal Navy and attained 2* rank. Appointed CB in 1955, John Cooke retired from the Royal Navy in 1957, after 42 years service. In civilian life he held several senior positions in industry, mostly in connection with shipbuilding and ship repairing, before retirement in 1964. Following the death of his wife in 1976, John travelled a lot, mostly in Africa. He died in RN Hospital Haslar in 1980, aged 81.


Additional Photographs
None at this time.




Memorials
No known memorials



Sources
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
'Register of Deaths of Naval Ratings' (data extracted by Director of Naval Personnel (Disclosure Cell), Navy Command HQ, 2009)