Title
Cooke, Hester
Description
Bibliographic Dictionary Entry
Date
fl.1935-1953
Creator
O'Toole, Tina
Source
Munster Women Writers Project, University College Cork
Publisher
Women in Irish Society Project, University College Cork
Rights
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Coverage
Munster, 1800-2000
Format
Text
Language
en
Type
Text
Contributor
O'Toole, Tina
Birth Date
ca 1920
Death Date
1986
Birthplace
Waterford
Place of Association
Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary
Co Waterford
Moyglass, Fethard, CoTipperary
Biographical Text
Hester Cooke was born in Waterford, and spent her early childhood at Moyglass, near Fethard, Co.Tipperary. Her father was a Church of Ireland clergyman, Canon Alfred Cooke, who became the rector of Carrick-on-Suir where she was to live for twenty-eight years. Her uncle, W.C.Cooke was a UCC lecturer in Spanish, and he provided his niece and her brother Hewitt with gifts of books, mostly natural history books, as the children were deeply interested in this subject. Thus, she grew up with a love of the Irish natural landscape, which is reflected in her poetry. Her brother, to whom she was devoted, went away to Aravon school at twelve, followed by Sandhurst and a career in the army. Cooke remained unmarried, and following her mother's sudden death in 1932 she lived at home with her father, taking on many of the tasks which had been done by her mother in the church.
Her recently-published memoir, Rectory Days, gives an autobiographical account of her life, and illustrates the excitement occasioned in Carrick by a letter from Hewitt, who spent many years posted in Burma. While he travelled all over the East with the army, she led a quiet life at home preparing food parcels for the families of ex-army men, reading and writing poetry. She wrote many articles for local newspapers and periodicals, frequently relating to the natural world, and her poems appeared in the Blarney Magazine. She published three collections, all of which she prepared for publication on a Remington typewriter brought back from Burma. Her correspondence reveals that she wrote at some length to Temple Lane once or twice a year. She comments: "She and I have much in common and we both draw our sword against Philistinism!!" Her publication, The Mountain Road, contained tributes to President Roosevelt and General Eisenhower which Cooke sent to the two men and an undated press clipping of the period indicates that these tributes were placed in the libraries of Eleanor Roosevelt and General Eisenhower.
Her brother died of a tropical disease in Malta in 1954, and her father in 1958. Cooke then moved to Cathedral Close in Waterford, where she died in 1986.
Her recently-published memoir, Rectory Days, gives an autobiographical account of her life, and illustrates the excitement occasioned in Carrick by a letter from Hewitt, who spent many years posted in Burma. While he travelled all over the East with the army, she led a quiet life at home preparing food parcels for the families of ex-army men, reading and writing poetry. She wrote many articles for local newspapers and periodicals, frequently relating to the natural world, and her poems appeared in the Blarney Magazine. She published three collections, all of which she prepared for publication on a Remington typewriter brought back from Burma. Her correspondence reveals that she wrote at some length to Temple Lane once or twice a year. She comments: "She and I have much in common and we both draw our sword against Philistinism!!" Her publication, The Mountain Road, contained tributes to President Roosevelt and General Eisenhower which Cooke sent to the two men and an undated press clipping of the period indicates that these tributes were placed in the libraries of Eleanor Roosevelt and General Eisenhower.
Her brother died of a tropical disease in Malta in 1954, and her father in 1958. Cooke then moved to Cathedral Close in Waterford, where she died in 1986.
Writing Genre
Poetry
Journalism
Memoir