FIRST WORLD WAR WAS ‘ENDED’ BY THIS PIT BOY FROM SILVERDALE
Joseph Cook one of signatories to Treaty of Versailles
HE was the former Silverdale pit boy who would later sign the peace treaty that brought an end to the First World War.
But the fascinating story behind Sir Joseph Cook’s rise to become Australia’s Prime Minister – the man who took his adopted nation into war – has another unexpected twist.
For now a Sentinel cutting, right, has emerged that shows he attended a rally in Hanley on November 11, 1918 to celebrate Armistice Day.
He had been paying a visit to his native North Staffordshire and was supporting the ‘feed the guns’ campaign, aimed at raising money for soldiers.
It turned into a remarkable moment as the guns of war had fallen silent that very same morning.
In a stirring speech in Hanley’s market square, Cook told the crowd he was ‘proud’ of how the nation had coped over the four years of wartime.
“The greatest asset in the world today is our British character,” he said.
“It has stood by us through all these trying days, and in sunshine, in shadow, in desolation and in plenty, in weakness and in strength, when the days have been dark and the sunshine has been bright.
“Whatever has come, you have met it with the same imperturbability which comes from a sense that we are doing a right thing.”
Cook said he would be returning to Australia, where he was by then serving as navy minister, so he could welcome the country’s troops back home.
Although Armistice Day ended the fighting, it wasn’t until June 28, 1919 that the Treaty of Versailles officially ended the war between Germany and the Allied powers.
Cook signed the landmark document on behalf of Australia. So how did it all begin for this lad from Silverdale?
Cook was born in 1860 in Vale Pleasant. His dad William was a ‘butty miner’, who worked at Holywood Colliery.
At the age of nine, Joseph got his first taste of labouring in the pit, where he dug coal underground and worked shoulder to shoulder with his father.
But following the hugely influential 1870 Education Act, he was forced to go to St Luke’s School until the age of 12. This spell in the classroom had a lasting effect on young Joseph and helped to shape his later life.
He would go on to serve as a lay Methodist preacher and marry a Chesterton teacher.
Then in 1886, Cook boarded a ship bound for the New World. He settled in a mining village in New South Wales and built a home which he called Silverdale.
He later became an MP and climbed the ranks, swapping his allegiance from Labour to the Liberals.
Cook was made minister of defence in 1909 and was responsible for building Australia’s armaments in the lead-up to the Great War. Then, in 1913, as leader of the Liberals, he was appointed Prime Minister.
He lasted only 18 months in the job before Labour ousted the government. But in 1917, Cook was asked to play a ministerial role in the new administration, overseeing the navy.
As a delegate at the Paris Peace Conference two years later, he is said to have had misgivings about the Treaty of Versailles. Although he believed Germany should be punished, he felt aspects of the document were vindictive.
But his role in enshrining peace in law – and his strong backing of the creation of the League of Nations – ensures Joseph Cook’s name will live on each Remembrance Day.