Armentieres bell

Armentieres bell

• Height  178 mm
• Width  152 mm
• Weight  5 kg
• Note  F#

The ‘Armentieres’ bell is dedicated to the memory of Robert Cook, an underage soldier from Johnsonville.

A few days after war broke out in August 1914, Cook, along with his two older brothers Richard and Arthur, went to enlist in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. His brothers were accepted for service, but Cook, then just 16 years old, was turned away. Determined to fight, he tried again the following year. On his second attempt, he claimed to be 18. Although still too young – the minimum age for recruits was then 20 – he was nevertheless accepted for service.

Cook became a private in the Wellington Infantry Regiment and in April 1916 he arrived in France with the newly-formed New Zealand Division. The division was sent to Armentières, a relatively quiet sector of the Western Front where the men could adjust to life in the trenches and gain front-line experience.

On 16 May, a few days after the division took over a section of the front line, Cook was wounded in the left thigh. He was evacuated to hospital at Wimereux, near Boulogne on the coast of northern France, but died of his wounds six days later. 

In 1926, Cook’s mother Susan purchased one of the bells in memory of her youngest son, the only one who did not return home at the end of the war. The name ‘Armentieres’ recalls the section of the Western Front where he was mortally wounded.

Further information

Auckland War Memorial Museum Online Cenotaph record – Robert Cook
Commonwealth War Graves Commission record – Robert Cook