John Percival Higgins Cook (SN 1163) was born in Ballarat and enlisted at Ballarat East on 15th September 1914. The single, 18 year old carpenter was assigned to the 5th Battalion and embarked from Melbourne aboard the Themistocles three days before Christmas. Before he could be deployed to the front, he spent four months in hospital recovering from venereal disease, eventually joining his unit at Gallipoli in June 1915. He was in and out of hospital several times with pyrexia over the next nine months before being transferred to the 46th Battalion in March 1916. He was wounded in action in France in August and was fairly promptly evacuated to England, suffering from 'shell shock and myalgia'. After being granted a furlough in September, much of the next two years was spent either absent without leave, or serving time in the detention barracks for his transgressions. In July 1918, during his final absence, he married an English woman, Harriet Poole, and it seems they had less than a week together before he was caught and sentenced once more. His last period in detention was cut short as he was posted to France, joining his brother with the 46th Battalion. Barely a month later, on 18th September 1918, he was killed in action, the notification reading 'During the early part of the advance on 18.9.18 he received a shell wound to the head and was killed instantly. ...'. He is buried in the Jeancourt Communal Cemetery.

His brother Thomas also served in the AIF.