William Percy Cook
Was born on January 21st 1921, in Aldershot, England. He came from the Baldwin family of Ireland, though he told me that we have german and celtic roots. He had a twin sister who died at birth, and dad was so small when born, that he had to be wrapped in cotton wool. He survived, and was one of the last children of a big family. They emmigrated out to Adelaide in Australia, when he was only four years old, where he grew up by the seaside of Semiphore through the great depression years. Life was not easy for dad through that time, and he rarely talked about it without some painful look on his face about its severity. He simply did not wish to talk about it. So nothing about dad's childhood I know about, other than he had to have tin on the bottom of his shoes, and had to sit and eat even the fat of the meat at the table.
Dad was born with an exceptional singing voice, and won most competitions he ever entered in the city of Adelaide till they actually banned him from going into further competitions due to his winning them all. Even identifying classical music on the ABC from just a few bars being played, he could do better than anyone else. Where he gained such knowledge of classical music, had to have been learnt in his childhood, for he certainly knew most anything played by the ABC as I grew up, whether heavy or light classical.
The trade that dad learned, was to be a fitter and turner, and all his life long, he enjoyed tinkering with things, just to fix them, or find a way to make it work. I am sure from the work he did as a young man, that he damaged his eyesight, so that he always had glasses from that point on, that were like magnifying glasses, so hard were they to see through!
When dad was old enough, he applied for a job to work on a carrier ship to work his way back to England, the place of his birth. When he arrived, he had precious little with him, but dad learnt to be a survivor in those days, with the help of having lived through the depression of the thirties.
Voice training took place in England beyond that which he had in Adelaide, and when the war broke out, dad joined the RAF in England, but was stationed in South America as a radio operator. He knew his morse code well, and never forgot the dit-dit-dahs for the rest of his days. During this time, dad did the opera circuit of South America, and gained letters of introduction to the top music conductors of his day, namely, Toscanini, and Toruso. Enrico Caruso's personal physician presented dad in South America, with Caruso's personal Sword, so impressed with dad's singing he was. He also had Winnifred Atwell accompany him when he was in Trinidad, though told me she could not do handle classical music, and true to form, she turned to her famous honky tonk playing that she was known for.
In Trindad, dad met mum, who was eighteen at the time, and not interested in him. So dad dated her sister, so that she became jealous, and got in the back door that way. From what I know, he was engaged to an English girl, to be married; but when dad gained mum as his girlfriend, he dropped his engagement, and married mum in Trinidad. My mother is 100% chinese, though my ancestors left China in the boxer revolution, so no culture was left by the time my mother was born.
(End of first part)
~Spiritwind~
Dad was born with an exceptional singing voice, and won most competitions he ever entered in the city of Adelaide till they actually banned him from going into further competitions due to his winning them all. Even identifying classical music on the ABC from just a few bars being played, he could do better than anyone else. Where he gained such knowledge of classical music, had to have been learnt in his childhood, for he certainly knew most anything played by the ABC as I grew up, whether heavy or light classical.
The trade that dad learned, was to be a fitter and turner, and all his life long, he enjoyed tinkering with things, just to fix them, or find a way to make it work. I am sure from the work he did as a young man, that he damaged his eyesight, so that he always had glasses from that point on, that were like magnifying glasses, so hard were they to see through!
When dad was old enough, he applied for a job to work on a carrier ship to work his way back to England, the place of his birth. When he arrived, he had precious little with him, but dad learnt to be a survivor in those days, with the help of having lived through the depression of the thirties.
Voice training took place in England beyond that which he had in Adelaide, and when the war broke out, dad joined the RAF in England, but was stationed in South America as a radio operator. He knew his morse code well, and never forgot the dit-dit-dahs for the rest of his days. During this time, dad did the opera circuit of South America, and gained letters of introduction to the top music conductors of his day, namely, Toscanini, and Toruso. Enrico Caruso's personal physician presented dad in South America, with Caruso's personal Sword, so impressed with dad's singing he was. He also had Winnifred Atwell accompany him when he was in Trinidad, though told me she could not do handle classical music, and true to form, she turned to her famous honky tonk playing that she was known for.
In Trindad, dad met mum, who was eighteen at the time, and not interested in him. So dad dated her sister, so that she became jealous, and got in the back door that way. From what I know, he was engaged to an English girl, to be married; but when dad gained mum as his girlfriend, he dropped his engagement, and married mum in Trinidad. My mother is 100% chinese, though my ancestors left China in the boxer revolution, so no culture was left by the time my mother was born.
(End of first part)
~Spiritwind~
posted by ~Spiritwind~ at 2:49 PM
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