Cook was a prize-winning student at J. L. Young's Adelaide Educational Institution and early showed a love of sport, especially cricket, at which he displayed considerable ability.
He was treated to special farewells by the newspaper staff, by the Adelaide Savage Club, of which he was a member, and by a host of friends at his old watering-hole, the Globe Hotel on Rundle Street, at which Sir Richard Baker (then Chairman of the S.A.J.C.)
[4] He served The Australasian for twenty five years, where his qualities of good sportsmanship, keen observation, and impartial criticism won for him a host of followers.
He had a fine memory, and his long experience mellowed his style, and gave a great charm to his writing; but he utilised the fund of reminiscences on nearly every occasion to illumine the subject of the hour, and not to exalt the past at the expense of the present.
He was a man of striking personality, and his tall and upright figure, his slow gait, were as well known at Randwick or Morphettville as at Flemington or Caulfield.