Henry Cooke (Australian politician)

Henry Harry Cooke (1840 – 22 June 1903) was an English-born Australian politician.

He was born at St Martin's in Cornwall to wheelwright Thomas Cooke and Jane. He moved to Victoria in 1857 and New South Wales in 1861, where he worked as a miner and storekeeper. On 19 August 1869 he married Mary Ann Isabel Peacock, with whom he had nine children.[1] Having settled in the Forbes area, he founded the Forbes and Parkes Gazette and was its initial editor.[2] He served as a Parkes alderman and the town's first mayor.[1] In 1880 he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the member for Forbes, but he was defeated in 1882. He returned in 1887 as a Free Trader, serving until his defeat in 1891.[3]

Cooke died at Parkes in 1903 (aged 63).[1][4]

  1. ^ a b c "Mr Henry Harry Cooke (1840-1903)". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 22 May 2019.
  2. ^ "Parliamentary portraits: Mr H H Cooke MLA for Forbes". Australian Town and Country Journal. 16 April 1887. p. 13. Retrieved 6 July 2021 – via Trove.
  3. ^ Green, Antony. "Elections for the District of Forbes". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  4. ^ "Death: Mr Henry A Cooke of Parkes". The Sydney Morning Herald. 23 June 1903. p. 4. Retrieved 6 July 2021 – via Trove.