Cynthia Cooke

Cynthia Cooke (1919 to 2016) was a British military nurse and nursing administrator who rose to be Matron-in-Chief of the Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service, the nursing branch of the Royal Navy, from 1973 to 1976. Born in Bealings, Suffolk, she began her medical training in 1938 at Tite Street Children's Hospital in Chelsea, worked as a theatre assistant after the Second World War began, and in 1943 started training for the naval nursing service at the Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar. In 1945 she volunteered to join the medical team aboard HMS Formidable, which collected Australian former prisoners of war from Manila and then sailed to Papua New Guinea to help Punjabi soldiers suffering from malaria and eczema. After the war she served in Chatham, Hong Kong, Malta and Plymouth, became lead tutor at the Royal Navy training school in 1970, and held the senior post of Matron-in-Chief. She was honoured with the Royal Red Cross, as a Commander of the Order of St John and as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, and retired in 1976.