By Greg Blood

SIR JOSEPH COOK, GCMG

LIBERAL PARTY

6th Prime Minister: 1913-1914

Joseph Cook was prime minister for just over a year and had a limited impact on sport in Australia. Cook viewed the participation at the Olympic Games as a way of promoting Australia’s identity internationally. Like his predecessors, he observed that sport should be a hard tussle but encompass fair play. During World War I. Cook believed that fighting for the nation and the Empire was more important that playing sport.

Birth: 7 December 12, 1860, Silverdale, Staffordshire, England – Death: 30 July 1947, Sydney, NSW

Political Appointments

• Member for Hartley, New South Wales Legislative Assembly: 2 June 1891 – 11 January 1901
• NSW Government Ministries: Postmaster-General 3 August 1894 – 27 August 1898; Secretary for Mines 27 August 1898 – 13 September 1899; Minister for Agriculture 27 August 1898 – 13 September 1899
• Federal Member for Parramatta, NSW:  29 March 1901 – 11 November 1921
• Leader of the Federal Parliamentary Leader of the Opposition 17 November 1908 – 26 May 1909; 20 January 1913 – 24 June 1913; 8 October 1914 – 17 February 1917.       .
• Federal Ministries: Minister for Defence 2 June 1909 – 29 April 1910; Minister for Home Affairs 24 June 1913 – 17 September 1914; Minister for Navy 17 June 1917 – 28 July 1920; Treasurer 28 July 1920 – 11 November 1921
• Prime Minister:  24 June 1913 – 17 September 1914
• High Commissioner in London: 11 November 1921 – 10 May 1927

Background

Joseph Cook was born on 7 December 1860 at Silverdale, Staffordshire, England and was one of five children to William Cooke and Margaret Fletcher. At the age of nine, he started working as a pit boy in the local Staffordshire coalmines. During his teenage years, he became a member of primitive methodists and changed his surname from Cooke to Cook. Cook migrated to Australia in 1885 and commenced working in Lithgow collieries. and became the General-Secretary of the Western Miners Association in 1887. He married Mary Turner, and they had eight children.

In 1891, Cook’s political career commenced with his election to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the Australian Labor Party (ALP) candidate for the seat of Hartley. Cook left the ALP in March 1894 due to its opposition to free trade. He held the seat until 1899 and was a minister in George Reid’s government. Cook resigned to enter federal parliament at Federation in 1901 and was elected the federal member for Parramatta as a member of Free Trade Party. Whilst in federal parliament, he represented three other parties – Anti-Socialist Party (1906-1910), Liberal Party (Commonwealth) (1910 – 1917) and Nationalist Party (1917-1921). He was the minister for defence from 1909 to 1910.  

As Opposition leader, he led the Liberal Party to a one seat majority at the 1913 general election defeating Andrew Fisher’s ALP government. However, his party did not have a majority in the Senate and faced difficulties in passing legislation. This led Cook to engineer federal parliament’s first double dissolution. However, his government lost the 1914 federal election held just after the outbreak of World War I to the ALP’s Fisher. On 7 February 1917, after the defeat of prime minister Billy Hughes conscription referendum, Cook’s Liberal Party merged with Hughes’ National Labor group to form the Nationalist Party. In the Hughes government, he was deputy prime minister and held several  ministerial positions – Minister for the Navy (1917-1920) and Treasurer (1920-1921). He was High Commissioner in the United Kingdom from 1921 to 1927. He returned to live in Sydney and died on 30 July 1947. [1]

His Australian Dictionary of Biography entry stated “He eschewed alcohol, gambling, sport and other forms of entertainment, and sought self-improvement through study at home”. Working in mines most likely left him little time for sport and what time available was devoted to self-education.[2]

Olympic Games

Cook became the first prime minister to successfully commit to funding the Australasian Olympic team.  Cook realised the team had the ability to promote Australia through sport in the world arena. The previous attempt by his predecessor Andrew Fisher to fund the Australasian Olympic team was rejected by federal cabinet. [3] £1000 was provided to the Australasian Olympic Games team for participation in the 1916 Berlin Olympics. But these Games were subsequently cancelled due to World War I. Prime minister Hughes and Cook as treasurer honoured this funding commitment by granting £1000 for 1920 Olympic Games team.

In January 1914, at a luncheon at the Sydney Cricket Ground to welcome a visiting American baseball team, Cook highlighted how sport brought nations together. This was in the backdrop of tensions in Europe that eventually led to World War I in July 1914. Referee published the following report: [4]

“The Prime Minister, Mr. Joseph Cook, offered greetings to ‘men of our own race,’ and voiced a warm desire to cultivate that esteem, respect, and friendship which should exist between the two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon family. ‘In playing your game here,’ he said, ‘you are playing a far bigger, more important, and far-reaching game than is apparent on the surface. These national sports of ours are greater unifying forces between the nations of the world today than anything else I know of. I was talking to the Swedish Consul the other day, and he told me that the knowledge of Australia had increased wonderfully in Europe since we have been sending competitors to the Olympic games.’ So, added Mr. Cook, would games tend to draw closer still the bonds of friendship, affection and goodwill between the great branches of the Anglo-Saxon race, America, and Australia.”

In March 1914, Cook further outlined his views of the value of the Olympic Games. In speaking at a meeting in Paramatta concerning a proposed swimming carnival connected to the Olympics Games, Cook noted the value of participation at the Olympic Games as it raised the international profile of Australia. The Assistant Consul General in Sweden informed Cook that interest in Australia was due to its participation at the 1912 Stockholm Games and not through advertising or marketing.[5]

After 1924 Paris Olympic Games, Cook hosted a luncheon for the Australian Olympic Team at Australia House where he congratulated swimming gold medallist Andrew ‘Boy’ Charlton. Cook said:[6]

 “We also have a baby boy, who, too, licked the world. The members of the Australian Olympic team have made the mother lioness proud of her cubs, who have done more than anything else to put Australia on the map.”

and

“While the politicians were talking Imperial federation the sportsmen were showing how to effect it.”

Sport and World War I

Near the end of the 1914 federal election campaign and the start of World War I, his message as prime minister to voters invoked the importance of duty over sport. He stated “Let nothing—not even your sports, nor even the worry of the war—prevent you from going to discharge your to your country, your empire, and its allies.”[7]

Cook view on the continuance of sport during World War I was similar to that promoted by prime minister Hughes. In July 1915, as leader of the opposition, Cook stated:[8]

“I saw in my paper that the football competitions mid other sports are diminishing through numbers of sportsmen having joined the forces. This is excellent. One of our troubles is that we are so far away from the war that hat it is sometimes difficult to realise the position. If a few shells came hurling into our sports grounds there would be a scatter. We should not forget that shells are ploughing the sports grounds in our Allies countries every day,  and our sportsmen here can help the sportsmen there to bundle them out of their grounds again. This is the best of all kind of competition, in which they could be engaged just now. We are sitting down to the seriousness of the undertaking, and these incidents are excellent and hopeful signs.”

Cricket

Australian sporting teams that visited England were normally welcomed by the High Commissioner. Cook in welcoming the Australian cricket team for the 1926 Ashes series stated his desire for the series of the hardest tussles, but the game would be played in the spirit of true gentlemen. He quoted the poem “’ ‘Tis not winning that makes the man. But playing the game on the good old plan [9]”.

Cook at the age of 86 died at his home in Bellevue Hill on 30 July 1947.

Cook had a limited interest in sport, but he understood its role in presenting a positivbe image for the new nation on the world stage. But sport needed to be secondary to the war effort.

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References

[1]  Online biographies – Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Archives of Australia, Museum of Australian Democracy.

[2]Australian Dictionary of Biography

[3] Harry Gordon, Australia and the Olympic Games, Brisbane, University of Queensland Press, 1994, p.72

[4] American Baseballers, Referee (Sydney, NSW), 7 January 1914, p. 14.

[5] 1914 Olympic Carnival, The Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 19 March, p. 9

[6] The Olympic Games, Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate (NSW), 28 July 1924

[7] Messages To The Electors, Stawell News and Pleasant Creek Chronicle, 3 September 1914, p. 2

[8] Mr Joseph Cook’s, Views. Geelong Advertiser, 17 July 1915, p. 4

[9] Test Cricket, The Kalgoorlie Miner, 23 April 1926, p.5