06/03/2026
It is with great sadness the Australian War Memorial learned of the passing, on 5 March 2026, of VX18984 Les Cook, aged 103.
In May 1940, Les lied about his age and enlisted as a 17 year old (along with his father, who was a First World War veteran) in the Australian Army. As a signaller with the famed 2/14th Battalion, Les saw action in Greece and Crete, along the Kokoda Track and the beachheads at Gona. He was in Borneo when the war ended and was then asked to serve with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan. His war ended in 1947.
Director of the Australian War Memorial, Matt Anderson once asked Les what made him want to enlist to fight Hi**er and later Tojo. “Simple,” he said. “I don’t like bullies!”
Les was always profoundly embarrassed by the fuss. He once told Anderson “I didn’t do anything brave. But I served with many. They’re up there on the (Memorial’s) Roll of Honour”.
A Canberra resident, Les was considered like royalty at the Australian War Memorial. It was in the lead up to the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, that Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal sought an audience with Les. As Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Australian Corps of Signals she was keen to hear of Les’s experiences as Signaller during the war. A 20-minute video conference was set up from the Memorial’s Second World War Galleries; it lasted almost an hour.
Les led the Anzac Day march in Canberra in 2023, and the Australian War Memorial was honoured to host him most recently for the Victory in the Pacific 80th anniversary events. He is pictured here meeting the Governor General, Her Excellency Sam Mostyn AC.
Les’ loving family has lost a father, grandfather and great grandfather. A man of quiet dignity and great determination. Australia has lost one of the few remaining heroes of ‘the greatest generation’, and an example, for us all, of service before self.
Vale Les Cook. A great yet humble Australian.
Lest We Forget
