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Lt.Cmdr. Edgar Christopher Cookson VC, DSO
Royal Navy HMS Comet
(d.28th Sep 1915)
Edgar Christopher Cookson was killed in action on 28th of September 1915, aged 31. He is bburied in the Amara War Cemetery in Iraq. He was the son of Capt. W. E. Cookson, R.N.
An extract from The London Gazette, dated 21st May, 1915, records the following:- "On the 28th September, 1915, the river gunboat Comet had been ordered with other gunboats to examine and, if possible, destroy an obstruction placed across the river by the Turks. When the gunboats were approaching the obstruction a very heavy rifle and machine gun fire was opened on them from both banks. An attempt to sink the centre dhow of the obstruction by gunfire having failed, Lieutenant-Commander Cookson ordered the Comet to be placed alongside, and himself jumped on to the dhow with an axe and tried to cut the wire hawsers connecting it with the two other craft forming the obstruction. He was immediately shot in several places and died within a very few minutes."
