The Australian Women's Register

Summary

Dame Mary Cook was born Mary Turner, daughter of George and Ann (formerly Gough) and was a schoolteacher before her marriage to Joseph Cook in 1885 and their emigration to Australia. They had nine children. She was President of the Red Cross Society in Parramatta and Vice-President of the War Chest Society which was involved in making clothes, knitting socks and sending packages of supplies to soldiers serving overseas in the First World War. Her husband was a member of the New South Wales parliament from 1891 and Federal member for Parramatta from 1901, and later Minister for Defence 1909 to 1910, Prime Minister from June 1913 to September 1914, Minister for the Navy from 1917 and High Commissioner in London from 1921 to 1927. In London, Mary continued to be active in the Red Cross, representing Australia at a meeting of the International Red Cross Board of Governors in Paris in 1923. She was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1925, having from her husband’s knighthood in 1918 been known as Lady Cook. On their return to Australia, Dame Mary was elected President of the Newington College Parents’ and Friends’ Association in 1928.