91 The Royal Canadian Legion MANITOBA & NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO COMMAND www.mbnwo.ca COOK, Stanley Lawrence “Stan” WWII Stan was born on February 28, 1921, to William (Jeff) and Edith (Adams) Cook of Riding Mountain, Manitoba. He had several jobs in Neepawa at BA Fuel, Artificial Breeder’s Association and for Ollie Ramstead (contractor). Stan joined the army and served two years with the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps before joining the Royal Canadian Air Force for the rest of the war. Pilot Officer Stanley Cook served with the India 99 Squadron and the Burma Bombers flying out of the Coco Islands in the Indian Ocean. They dropped food and ammunition to Prisoners of War who escaped from Singapore to Burma. On June 30, 1947, he married Dorothy Simpson. He was a carpenter by trade and worked as a building inspector for the city of Winnipeg. He was a member of The Royal Canadian Legion Neepawa Branch 23. Stan passed away on January 4, 2018, in Selkirk, Manitoba. COOK, William Jefferson “Jeff” Jeff was born in Melton, Yorkshire, England on June 10, 1882. In 1897, he enlisted in the East Yorkshire Regiment going to South Africa as physical training Sgt. instructor. He was wounded during the Boer War and was awarded the Queen Victoria Medal and three bars South African Corp, the King Edward Medal and two bars. His maternal great, great grandfather, William Wilberforce, was noted English philanthropist of the early 1800s who fought the slave trade in and out of the British House of Commons. He was one of the founders of the anti-slavery society in England formed in 1823. Ten years later, in August 1833, one month after Wilberforce’s death, the Emancipation Bill was passed by the British Parliament outlawing slavery under the British flag. After the Boer War was over, he immigrated to Canada in 1904. He worked first in Lena in southern Manitoba, then he lived in Gladstone working for Dave Smith before taking up farming in the Glenella district, one and a half miles west of town. At that time, Glenella was part of the RM of Westbourne. On November 18, 1914, he married Edith Adams of Sheffield, England. They were married by Rev. Wright, the first couple wed in the then new church.While living in Glenella district, a daughter, Dorothy and a son, William were born. In 1919, the family moved from Glenella to the Roskeen district, north of Riding Mountain, and lived on the John McClung farm, ½ mile south of the Thomas Johnson farm and across from Bradshaws. There, another son, Benjamin, was born and later two more sons, Stanley and Harold. The family lived in the Riding Mountain area for a number of years and then moved to the Glenholm district east of Eden, Manitoba where the final member of the family, Edith, was born. They spent many years in the Glenholm district where the children completed their education at the Glenholm Consolidated School. They retired to Neepawa in 1948 where Jeff had built his own house on Mountain Avenue. He then was the circulation manager for the Winnipeg Free Press for a number of years. Edith passed away on September 12, 1957, at the age of 62. In 1959, Jeff sold his house in Neepawa and went to live with his son in Kelwood. Later, he took up residence in the Osborne Home in Neepawa. Jeff passed away on August 28, 1974, at the East View Lodge in Neepawa at the age of 92. He was a member of The Royal Canadian Legion in Neepawa and Riding Mountain.
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