Austin Cook, of Zephyr, Ontario, toured the battlefields of France and Belgium in September 1990. He travelled with a group of other Great War veterans, but was the only Canadian. He was ninety-three years old at the time. The group visited the Vimy Monument, Arras, Ypres, and the Somme. Eldred Cook, Austin’s daughter, also went on the trip, and said that at one point, their tour bus was stopped in Belgium by a man and his grandson. The two Belgians had heard that there was a Canadian veteran aboard, and they both wanted to personally thank him for helping save their country from the Germans. During the war, Cook served in the 182nd Battalion and also the 12th Canadian Railway Troops.

Do you have an ancestor who served in the Great War? Submit their story and it could be included on this Great War Album website.