Husband of Marjorie Cook née Warnes b. 1908 and father of Daphne Cook.
Marjorie’s marriage to John Cook was very short. When her elder sister Iris married Cyril Gaby in Hong Kong in 1934 and went with him to Shanghai, she took Marjorie’s baby daughter, Daphne with them “because Marjorie was unable to look after her” in Cyril Gaby’s words. Apparently Daphne’s father “wanted nothing to do with her,” which doesn’t sound like a very Christian sentiment. It raises the question whether the Rev. John Cook was her real father or whether he married Marjorie out of kindness.
John and Marjorie Cook’s divorce is recorded in Carl Smith’s cards:
Published in A Voz de Macau:
"5 January 1942 - divorce, Aurora Marjorie Daphne Warnes Cook and Rev. John Turnbull Cook.
Clerk of 2nd office Arthur da Silva Ramos, Chief Justice Evaristo Fernandes Macarinhas.”
At the time of the divorce in 1942 the Japanese invasion had just taken place and Marjorie can have played no part in the legal procedure. According to Barbara Anslow, Marjorie was a friend of her elder sister, Olive Redwood in Stanley Camp. Mostly brought up at the Canossian convent after her parents’ death, Marjorie was baptised into the Catholic church aged 17. Aurora was the name she was given at her Catholic baptism. I don’t know if her marriage was a Catholic one or if she took part in Catholic worship at Stanley Camp. She remarried after the war and became Marjorie Savage. She and her husband, Cyril Savage went to live in Kent. Nothing is known of their life in England except that the marriage was a happy one.
Any record of the Rev. John Turnbull Cook either in Hong Kong or Macau would be welcome.
Comments
Cook - Warnes marriage
Hi Jill,
It's rare for a Roman Catholic priest to be married, so I think he must have been a priest from a different denomination.
Also in Portuguese law after 1940 it was illegal for those married in a Catholic church to get divorced (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concordat_of_1940).
So it doesn't seem likely they'd have married in a Roman Catholic church.
Regards, David
Rev. John Turnbull Cook
Thanks David. All those points had occurred to me - also I don't think a Catholic priest is known as a Reverend. I had asked Barbara Anslow whether Marjorie participated in Catholic activities in Stanley, but she didn't remember her doing so. Despite her late baptism, she may have given up on her Catholic faith. I don't know. It would be interesting to know what church the Reverend Cook was a priest in and why he pushed through his divorce in the middle of the war. Perhaps his name will turn up in the newspapers, although Carl Smith hasn't recorded any more references to him.
Jill
Re: Referring a Chatholic Priests as Reverend
Hi there,
In a recent lookup for Fr. Joseph Foley I believe at least the Jesuits are still using it.
Thank & Best Regards,
T
Reverend priests
To my personal knowledge many priests - be they Anglican or Catholic - carry the title Reverend if they wish. Thus Reverend J.Smith might be of either community. A Catholic clergyman of that name might well be addressed as Rev Fr J.Smith but then so might an Anglican if he or she so wished to be styled that way. In both Churches there are Very Reverend and Most Reverend titles applied to individuals who climb the promotion ladder!
In the case of Reverend John Turnbull Cook it is well nigh impossible that he was a Catholic priest. Of course there have been marriages between priests of that Church down the centuries. But in a tiny society such as HK in those days he would have been ostracised by both his congregation and his Church.
It is only since the 1960s that some small degreee of tolerance has been shown to Catholic priests who marry. That tolerance is that Rome allows the rescinding of priestly vows and thus rids itself of the problem.
John Turnbull Cook
Might an old Crockfords provide some clues, Jill?
John Turnbull Cook
A John Turnbull Cook(e) appears in four years' Jurors Lists, in the "common jurors" section:
There's no sign of him in 1931 or 1936, but I didn't look beyond that.
Regards, David
Juror or cleric?
Hmm ... well, if this John Turnbull Cook is the same as Jill's there's something a bit odd. Priests and ministers of Christian religious denominations were (are are) exempted from Jury service ... But the title Reverend is given to people other than 'full' priests - in the Catholic Church a man become Rev. when he's ordained to the diaconate, whether permanently or as a step towards priesthood. I know that in the Church of England something similar applies ...
and maybe this doesn't count as 'priest or minister' within the meaning of the Jury exemptions?
Mr Cook
I think Patricia is right. The evidence of the Jury list is more than a bit odd. Regarding the application of the title Reverend to the diaconate in the Catholic Curch she is/was correct. Don't know about the Anglicans.
If the Jury list Cook is the same man - and my experience is that they can often be misleading or just plain wrong - then he cannot have been a Catholic deacon. Studying for the priesthood was a full time job then as it is now.
I suspect the same applies to the Anglican Church.
If one accepts the Jury list is correct than Mr Cook may well have awarded himself the title of Reverend or been a member of some obscure sect. Check him out in Crockfords if he is important.
John Turnbull Cook & priesthood
Perhaps John Cook entered the (Anglican) priesthood post-1935. His daughter, Daphne was 6 months old when his sister-in-law and her new husband agreed to take her with them to Shanghai, on the pretext that Marjorie, his wife, was apparently unable to care for her - unusual in a culture of amahs. It seems as if the marriage between John and Marjorie had therefore already broken down and Marjorie needed to work. Her Canossian training as a stenographer stood her in good stead, but there must have been social ripples. Perhaps the Church was a refuge from local opprobrium.
Jill
Date correction
I said in my first post on John Turnbull Cook that his daughter Daphne was taken to Shanghai in 1932. That should read 1934. Iris Warnes and Cyril Gaby were married in the Roman Catholic Cathedral on 6 October 1934 and immediately took the 6-month old Daphne to Shanghai where Gaby worked. I don't know the date or place of John's and Marjorie's marriage or where they lived, but perhaps the breakdown of their marriage accounts for his move from a private address to a hotel between 1934 and 1935 as recorded in the jury list. Thanks David for providing that information.
Jill
John Turnbull Cook 20 Nov 1907 - 15 Aug 1988
Could this be him?
Australia WWII Miltary Records
John Turnbull Cook born 20 November 1907 Bendigo Victoria New South Wales Australia
Marriage 1944
John Turnbull Cook to Betty Williamson in Victoria New South Wales Australia
Australian Electoral Register 1949 Fawkner Victoria New South Wales
John Turnbull Cook 44 Murphy Street public servant
Betty Cook
Find a Grave
John Turnbull Cook buried 15 August 1988 aged 80 at Mount Bassett Cemetery Mackay Queensland. Birth date Unknown
John Turnbull Cook
It could well be him. He would have been a year older than Marjorie, his first wife. The jurors lists for 1934 and 1935 give him as being with the Douglas Steamship Co. so I don’t think he was a “Reverend” when they got married. There is a Melbourne property company called Turnbull Cook. It can’t be that common a combination of names. If there was a newspaper announcement of Cook’s engagement to Betty Williamson, it would be interesting to know if he was still styling himself as “Reverend”. Is there a date for his second engagement?
Thank you for following this up. I had updated the information about Marjorie’s second husband, who was originally thought to have been a POW, but who didn’t actually arrive in Hong Kong until after the war.