Career
He was knighted in the Queen"s Birthday Honours list in 1945. James Douglas Cooke was born in 1879 in Melbourne, Australia, the eldest son of John Cooke, a pastoralist who had lived in New Zealand. In 1907, Cooke married Elsie Muriel.
Cooke lived in London until his death in 1949.
Cooke was educated at Melbourne University, where he qualified in medicine and surgery, receiving his Bachelor of Medicine in 1901, and Bachelor of Surgery a year later. He served in the First World War in the Royal Army Medical Corps.
He also ran a medical practice in Stanmore, Middlesex.