Frederick Cooke (socialist)

Frederick Riley Cooke
Frederick Riley Cooke
3rd President of the Social Democratic Party
	In office; 1915–1916
Preceded by	Hiram Hunter
Succeeded by	Peter Fraser
5th President of the New Zealand Labour Party
	In office; 1921–1922
Vice President	Tim Armstrong
Leader	Harry Holland
Preceded by	Peter Fraser
Succeeded by	Tom Brindle
Personal details
Born	28 April 1867; Leeds, Yorkshire, England
Died	26 June 1930; Christchurch, New Zealand
Nationality	New Zealand
Political party	Labour (1916-1930)
Other political; affiliations	Socialist Party (1901-13); Social Democratic Party (1913-16)
Spouse(s)	Ida Clough
Occupation	Trade unionist

Frederick Riley Cooke (28 April 1867 – 26 June 1930) was a New Zealand tailor, socialist and trade unionist.

Early life

Cooke was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England on 28 April 1867. He started his working life aged seven and was almost entirely self-educated. He married Ida Clough on 1 August 1891 in Bradford, where he was living at the time.[1]

Political career

He came to New Zealand in 1900 and was a founding member of Socialist Party. He stood as a parliamentary candidate in the Christchurch East electorate in 1905, 1908, and 1911 and received few votes, but he regarded his candidacies as a good propaganda tool.[1]

At the unity conference in 1913, Cooke was a forceful opponent of compulsory military training. The Socialist Party merged with United Labour Party at that conference to form the Social Democratic Party, and Cooke was elected vice president in 1914, and president in 1915. In 1916, the Social Democratic Party merged to become the Labour Party. Cooke was Labour's vice president (1920/1921) and president (1921/22).[2] He was a member of Christchurch City Council from a by-election in 1920 onwards.[3]

Cooke unsuccessfully contested further parliamentary elections for the Labour Party: Ashburton in 1922, Christchurch North in 1925, and Waitaki in 1928.[1]

Cooke died in Christchurch on 26 June 1930; he had suffered from diabetes for the last decade and had developed prostate cancer. He was buried at Sydenham Cemetery. Addresses were given at the funeral by Ted Howard (MP), Peter Fraser (MP), John Archer (Mayor of Christchurch), and Jack McCullough (trade unionist).[3]

Notes

McAloon, Jim. "Frederick Riley Cooke". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
Paul, J.T. (1946). Humanism in Politics: New Zealand Labour Party in Retrospect. Wellington, NZ: New Zealand Worker Printing and Publishing. p. 192.
Greenaway, Richard L. N. (June 2007). "Sydenham Cemetery Tour" (PDF). Christchurch City Libraries. pp. 15–18. Retrieved 30 July 2013.

gollark: "Good in theory" is a weird thing to say about communism when it's more like "good according to marketing for it, like every ideology", not "good if you actually think about it and know how humans work".

gollark: Yes, I agree.

gollark: Yes, exactly.

gollark: Good in theory if you know basically nothing about humans, perhaps.

gollark: I don't think it's very good in theory if it's got a giant problem you could easily see coming.

References

Gustafson, Barry (1980). Labour's path to political independence: the origins and establishment of the NZ Labour Party 1900–1919. Auckland, New Zealand: Auckland University Press. ISBN 0-19-647986-X.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

Party political offices
Preceded by Hiram Hunter	President of the Social Democratic Party 1915–1916	Succeeded by Peter Fraser
Preceded by Peter Fraser	President of the Labour Party 1921–1922	Succeeded by Tom Brindle

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[DNZB_Cooke-1] McAloon, Jim. "Frederick Riley Cooke". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 23 April 2017.

[2] Paul, J.T. (1946). Humanism in Politics: New Zealand Labour Party in Retrospect. Wellington, NZ: New Zealand Worker Printing and Publishing. p. 192.

[Sydenham_Cemetery_Tour-3] Greenaway, Richard L. N. (June 2007). "Sydenham Cemetery Tour" (PDF). Christchurch City Libraries. pp. 15–18. Retrieved 30 July 2013.