Cook, John Howard

Dr. John Howard Cook of the Church Missionary Society was born at Hampstead, and educated at St. Paul’s School and University College, London. M.S. 1895; B.S. 1896; M.S. 1897; F.R.C.S. 1897; Dip. Tropical Medicine 1905. He arrived at Mengo Hospital in 1899 to assist his brother, Albert Cook, and worked there until 1920, except for one period from 1911-1915 when he worked at Kabarole Hospital, Toro. In 1901 he first reported sleeping sickness, which later reached serious epidemic proportions in Buganda and Busoga. In 1920 he returned to England and was appointed Secretary of the CMS medical committee, and in 1921, physician to the society. In 1931 he was a member of a CMS delegation to Australia and New Zealand, and in 1934-1935 to India. In 1938 he visited East Africa and the Near East. He retired in 1939. Although his brother is better known, J. H. Cook’s reputation as a doctor stood very high.

Louise Pirouet

This article, used by permission, was written by Louise Pirouet, as part of A Dictionary of Christianity in Uganda (Department of Religious Studies, Makerere University College, 1969), p. 17. Copies available at Africana Section, Makerere University Library (AF Q 276.761 MAK and AR/MAK/99/1); Bishop Tucker Library, Uganda Christian University and in UK at the University of Birmingham; Crowther Centre Library, CMS Oxford and Louise Pirouet Papers, Cambridge Centre of African Studies.