James Wilfred Cook, 10 December - 21 October 1975

Abstract

James Wilfred Cook, eminent chemist and university administrator, was born in South Kensington, London, on 10 December 1900.* His father, Charles William Cook, who died in 1947, aged 82, was one of a large family from Hitchin in Hertfordshire. His mother (nee Frances Wall) was the daughter of Aaron Wall of Kimbolton, Herefordshire. Neither parent had much education, and the family of two boys and a girl living in London were never affluent. The father’s weekly wage did not exceed thirty shillings until the first World War, when it was increased to forty-two shillings. But they were well fed, well clothed and comfortably housed. Cook mentions that his main childhood influence was his mother who was highly intelligent and entirely devoted to her family. She died in 1962 at the age of 88. It was certainly a remarkable achievement for a boy and a great tribute to his parents that in these circumstances, without family or financial influence, he should attain such eminence in science that he was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society at the early age of 37.