Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Rev A. Stuart McCook

This year will be notable in the life of the Rev. A. Stuart McCook, B.A., of West Maitland Presbyterian Church. He celebrates the jubilee of his birth, and the semi-jubilee of his ordination to the ministry, and he will have the honor of being called to be Moderator of the General Assembly of the church in New South Wales, Mr. McCook came from Ulster stock on both sides of the family, but he belongs to the third generation since the arrival of the pioneers in Australia. The stalwart sons of the Hawkesbury are well-known throughout the State, and the new Moderator Is a fair representative of the type, stands well over six feet high. Perhaps not many fortunes have been made in that portion of the county of Cumberland during the last generation or so, and the traveller notices that townships in the area generally appear unprogressive. Where the soil is rich the acres on each farm are so few that It becomes the rule for the sons to seek for openings further afield. Hence Hawkesbury natives are found everywhere but on the Hawkesbury. Rev. A. S. McCook was born in March, 1872, on a farm in the Penrith district, in that locality which all old hands knew as South Creek, the township now known as St. Mary's. His father, Mr. Robert. McCook, lived there almost all his life, and was well known and respected by all the countryside. He died in Ashfield four years ago at the ripe age of 75. He was an elder of the local church for over 40 years, and superintendent of the Sunday school for 25 years, and for several years represented the congregation in the presbytery of the Hawkesbury and the General Assembly. His mother belonged to the Sharpe family, well-known throughout County Antrim, Ireland. She still survives.

School and University
The future Moderator received his elementary education at St. Mary's public school, and later In the Sydney High School, then located in the well known old barrack building in Castlereagh street. Mr. Joseph Coates, one of our international cricketers, was headmaster,and among those on the staff were Mr.J. G. Leggo, now General Leggo, of Duntroon; Mr. A. J. Sheedy, who recently contested the Namoi election;and Mr. T. B. Trebeck, who has just retired from East Maitland Boys High School. During Mr. McCook's High School course the junior and senior University public examinations were successfully negotiated, and in 1892 he matriculated as an undergraduate in Sydney University, winning a University bursary, tenable for three years, and a scholarship at St. Andrew's College, tenable for four years. During his University course he entered into most of the features of University life. Though not built for athletic championships, he played football, cricket and tennis, and tennis is still his favorite game. He was an active member of the University union and debating society, and one of the original members of the Student Christian Union, founded by Dr.John R. Mott. In 1895, Mr. McCook graduated as Bachelor of Arts, and entered the Theological Hall at St. Andrews, whence, after a successful three years' course, he was licensed and ordained by the Sydney Presbytery, in November, 1897. During his course in divinity he had received appointments during vacations to home mission districts, notably Byron Bay, on the North Coast, where he pioneered an area which now comprises three settled parishes and Wallerawang, Rydal and Sunny Corner, in the Bathurst district.

WEST WAS HIS PARISH
After ordination Mr. Mc.Cook was appointed to an extensive district in the north-west, in which Gunnedah and Boggabri were the chief towns and from there he went to the far West. The township of Warren became his base, but the parish was 100 miles by 60 in extent, and reached from the Bogun River to the Castlereagh.

In March 1SS9, Mr. McCook was inducted into Warren as his flrst charge, by the presbytery of Bathurst and laboured there for live years, most of them years of severe drought. A varied experience in dairying, mining and pastoral districts has left him with a great admiration for the hardy men and women — the real aristocracy of our State — who pioneer the lands outback. In 1904 a unanimous call was presented to the minister of Warren from West Maitland congregation, rendered vacant by the death, after a ministry of 31 years, of the Rev. James Benne. There he has remained ever since, notwithstanding several invitations to other spheres, and a fortnight ago he completed the 18th year of his ministry in Maitland. In Maitland and district he is a well-known figure, and his work in public affairs, as well as in his church, is generally recognised. For ten years he was the member of the Maitiand hospital committee, and only vacated the position only going abroad with the troops.

CALL TO ARMS
Mr. McCook enlisted towards the close of 1915, and on the formation of the third division under General Monash he was appointed as Presbyterian chaplain to the 9th Brigade,and attached to the 34th Battalion. He went into Rutherford camp, and left with the battalion on May 2, 1916. .Instead of landing in Egypt, as anticipated, the troopship went on to Plymouth, and the troops were encamped at Lark Hill, on Salisbury Plain. After five strenuous months of training, the division was transferred to France ,and the new troops were give their first experience of trench warfare around Armentiers. Wherever the 34th was, there was their chaplain, absorbed in the various duties while the padre Is called upon to perform. With his boys lie moved on to Ploegsteert Wood, and was in the great battle of Messlnes. Thence the battalion moved north, and was engaged in the operations at Zonnebeke and Broedsinde. Just prior to the fatal battle of Passchendaele, Chaplain McCook was transferred, after a year's front lines service, to England, and It was a sad day for him In England when news came across that so many of his old comrades had fallen in the quagmires of Flanders. In England lie was appointed to the third command depot, a convalescent camp at Hurdcott. Through this camp hundreds of men passed every week on their way to hospital, or to either France or Australia. The Maitland padre naturally took special interest in boys from this district, and esteems it a privilege that he was able to befriend so many. He received promotion from chaplain of the fourth class to that of the third class, with the rank of major. Later he was given further service among -wounded men by appointments at Dartford Hospital, and to an itinerant position as visitor to London and district hospitals for the care of Australian soldiers.

HOME VIA AMERICA
Towards the close of 1918, he was given leave to return home via America, and in company with Mrs. McCook, who had reached England In 1916, and had rendered service in Y . M . C . A huts, the padre visited New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Montreal, Torunto, Quebec, Winnipeg, and several other American and Canadian cities. He was in Ottowa on Armistice Day, and vividly recalls how the citizens there, in true British fashion, noisily celebrated the great event. From Vancouver he came across the Pacific in the Niagara, calling at Honolulu, Samoa, and Auckland, and was glad to be back In Australia In the opening days of 1919. Three weeks later found him among familiar scenes of Maitland, cordially welcomed home by his congregation and the citizens, and taking. part in most of the welcomes accorded to returning boys later. In church life, Mr. McCook has been identified with all departments but most of all, with extension work. Soon after his arrival in Maitland he was instrumental in restoring old St. Ann's church at Paterson, and in pioneering the rapidly rising Maitland coalfield townships. The churches at Cessnock , Kurri, Weston, and Abermain, owe their origin to his efforts. He has at various times served on most of the committees of the General Assembly, and at present is convener of the important committee administering the McCaughey bequest. It might be said that Mr. McCook's work in the ministry has been of an all round kind rather than of distinction In any one branch. The call to the Moderator's chair at a comparatively early age indicates the value which the church has set upon the work Mr. McCook has a younger brother in the ministry, the Rev. W. H. McCook, B.A., B.D., of Melbourne.

The Newcastle Monday 10 April 1922 page 4