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Lancelot Taylor Cooke
Lancelot Cooke [or Cook] arrived on the Gilmore in 1829. He was a clerk in the employ of Thomas Peel, and featured prominently in colonial education. He was an exponent of the classics who disliked teaching elementary subjects. His career from 1830-1869 included teaching in Fremantle, Perth and Busselton. From 1842-1848 he was postmaster at Toodyay and an itinerant tutor. About 215 children from the ships Rockingham, Gilmore and Hooghly were probably given tuition in the temporary settlement at Clarence under bush timber in the sandhills. Mr Cooke was likely to have been assisting in settling the boys. He also officiated at a number of burials in the early 1830s, as shown by his signature in the register of St John's Church. He died in 1878 at the Mt Eliza Invalid Depot, Perth. (John Rikkers, and Diane Oldman)
See also Mary Ann Pengelly, and Henry Spencer, other early educators.
Haynes:
2. A TEACHER'S SALARY
Note: The problem exampled below continued throughout the next 100 years of this state's educational history.
4th June 1832
Sir,
Nothing but extreme necessity and distress has compelled me to write and request your Excellency's particular attention to the following; The Government is indebted to me for two Months Schooling during the time I had the Colonial School at Fremantle besides One Pound for Books advanced to the Children by me by Capt. Bannister's order. I have several times applied for payment of the £ 5 = 3 = 4 and the only answer I ever procured was that I could not be paid for any Services rendered after the End of last; Now your Excellency will I hope desire I am Paid as I never received any Notice to throw up the School until Some days after the 2 Months were due, the Sum though small is a considerable loss to me especially as I have been in a very Precarious state of health the returns from my School not being sufficient to stop the cravings for hunger. Trusting your Excellency will be pleased to give my just memorial the earliest consideration which will oblige.
Sir,
Your Excellency's Most Obedient Humble Servant, Lancelot T. Cook.
Source: C.S.O. Papers, Vol. 22, Letter III,In Battye Library.
References and Links
Haynes, Bruce T. ed. 1976, Documents on Western Australian Education 1830-1973, Claremont Teachers College (ECU).
Oldman, Diane 2004, 'Was Clarence Beach one of the first 'schools' in the colony?', Family History Society of Rockingham and Districts Newsletter, vol. 9, no. 4, June: 7.
Western Australian Schools 1830-1980, compiled by John Rikkers, Planning Branch, Education Dept. of Western Australia 1984-.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 4 November, 2016 and hosted at freotopia.org/people/cooke.html (it was last updated on 25 January, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.