William Henry Cooke, born in 1857 in Manchester, England, was the eldest son of Edmund John Cooke, a grocer's assistant, of Brixton, London, and his wife Anne. William married Alice Henrietta Augusta Constance Eyre, eldest daughter of William Eyre, merchant, of Wolverhampton and Sydney, at St John's Church, Snails Bay, Sydney on 9 Jun 1883. They had three children, born in Sydney: Constance, 1884; Edmund, 1889 and Dudley, 1896. The family was in Launceston during the early 1890s, living in Trevallyn. WH Cooke was a tenor in the Exhibition Choir in 1891-92.
In 1903 William and Alice were living in McMahon's Point, Sydney. In the Electoral Roll for 1925 the family is living on a selection at Catfish Scrub, Calliope, Gladstone, Queensland. William died on 12 Nov 1930 at 'Austral Eden', Calliope.
Prue McCausland & Leang Peou Mar 2009