He was awarded a Walston scholarship in 1932 and spent the next two years undertaking research in the British School at Athens.

[1] In 1946, after pre-war lecturing positions at the University of Manchester and wartime service in the Civil Service, Cook took up the position of Laurence Reader in classical archaeology at Cambridge University, which he held until his elevation in 1962 to the Laurence Chair where he remained until his formal retirement in 1976.

[2] Photographs attributed to Cook and annotated the British School Athens are held in the Conway Library whose archive, of primarily architectural images, is being digitised under the wider Courtauld Connects project.

The Cooks enjoyed travelling together and, in 1968, they published a joint work, Southern Greece: An Archaeological Guide.

His younger brother was John Manuel Cook, also a noted scholar of antiquity.