SAPPER EDWIN COOK
ROYAL ENGINEEERS
21ST AUGUST 1916 AGE 23
BURIED: ECOIVRES MILITARY CEMETERY, MONT-ST ELOI, FRANCE
Edwin Cook, a former miner and a member of 175 Tunnelling Company Royal Engineers, was killed in a front-line mining accident. The sappers had set their charges in a mine shaft they had dug when the Germans fired one of their own mines close by. As soon as the dust had settled, the sappers rushed down into their own shaft to inspect the damage and were overcome by fumes, whether methane or poison gas is not clear. Cook and three other sappers died, along with five men from the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons who tried to rescue them.