John Cloake (2 December 1924 – 9 July 2014) was a historian and author of several works mostly relating to the local history of Richmond upon Thames and surrounding areas.
[2] During and immediately after World War II Cloake served in the British Army as lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in India and Japan.
Following an initial period in the Information Research Department, he was appointed Third Secretary in Baghdad in 1949 supporting Henry Mack and Jack Troutbeck.
[2] Cloake appeared as a local history expert in series 5, episode 1 of Time Team, Channel 4's TV programme on archaeology, which revealed the footings of the lost Richmond Palace.
[9] As well as a biography of Sir Gerald Templer, who was Britain's High Commissioner to Malaya from 1952 to 1954 and military adviser to the Prime Minister, Anthony Eden, during the Suez Crisis, he wrote several books relating to the history of Richmond and its vicinity: While in Saigon, in 1952, he met Margaret ("Molli") Morris (1929–2008) from Washington, D.C., who was serving there in the United States Diplomatic Service, and they were married in Cambridge four years later in 1956.