Historian Tim Cook was a frequent contributor to Legion Magazine. He died on Oct. 25, 2025.
[Marie Louise Deruaz]

A Cornish toast to historian Tim Cook

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

The traditional Cornish fishing village of Mevagissey, situated on the west coast of England, seemed like as good a place as any to discover the works of Canada’s “preeminent military historian” Tim Cook. It was a pleasant enough day, just after Christmas, while outside, parting clouds and a tame ocean breeze presented prime conditions for exploration—to amble along cobbled streets, to frequent ye olde pubs, perhaps even to trek through the hills bound for oh-so-near Pentewan.

The urge, however, was absent. Quayside saunters and savoured pints could wait. Far more tantalizing was Cook’s newly unwrapped tome, The Necessary War, Volume 1: Canadians Fighting The Second World War: 1939-1943, a gift from a bemused father-in-law wondering why a Brit would desire such a seemingly obscure read.

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Victoria Cross Medal (left). Private Jess Randall Larochelle (right). [CORPORAL ISSA PARÉ, RIDEAU HALL © OSGG-BSGG, 2007; DND]

Campaign group renews efforts to award Jess Larochelle the Victoria Cross

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

Canadian Armed Forces veteran Bruce Moncur knows what makes a legend. He wasn’t present to witness the exploits of Royal Canadian Regiment comrade, Jess Randall Larochelle, on Oct. 14, 2006, having himself been wounded in a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan several weeks earlier, but he didn’t need to. Why would he, the now-5th grade teacher argues, when the tale spoke for itself?

That day, Larochelle’s platoon encountered a numerically superior Taliban force while manning a remote observation post. Two soldiers had already been killed when the Restoule, Ont., private, having sustained a broken back and fractured neck vertebrae amid the battle, all but singlehandedly fought off 40 insurgents by machine gun and rocket-propelled grenade for an hour, perhaps even more.

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• An armchair tour of the Saskatoon Museum of Military Artifacts
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