Joseph Cook

Sir Joseph Cook (7 December 1860 - 30 July 1947), Australian politician and sixth Prime Minister of Australia, was born in Silverdale, a small mining town near Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. He had no formal education and worked in the coal mines from the age of nine. He married Mary Turner in 1885 and shortly after emigrated to New South Wales.

Further reading

• G Bebbington, Pit Boy to Prime Minister, University of Keele, no date (quite rare but the only attempt at a Cook biography to date)