(26th October 1885 – 28th August 1951) University Professor

Gilbert Cook was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, on 26th October 1885 and he initially attended the Public Higher Grade School there until the age of 10. After this he would study at Roomfield School, in Todmorden, between 1895 and 1902, before going on to Owen College, then part of Victoria University. During his time here the institution would undergo an organisation change so that when he graduated, with a first-class degree in engineering, it would be known as the Vicotria University of Manchester, also known as the University of Manchester.

In 1906 Cook went to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway to gain some professional experience, initially as an article pupil to D.C. Rattray, the Chief Engineer, and later as an assistant engineer working on surveying, branch line construction, bridge building and parliamentary work. In 1910 he would return to the University of Manchester as a Vulcan Research Fellow and worked in the Engineering Laboratory. The following year he would move to before an assistant lecturer in the Engineering Department.

During the First World War, he would work on several projects as a member of the armed forces. This was initially as a Lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery manning coastal defences on the Humber but later he would move to a headquarters position where he was responsible for experimental rangefinding equipment. This work would later be the basis for his 1920 doctorate. In 1917 Cook transferred to the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve where he worked on the technical aspects of minesweeping at HMS Vernon.

In 1919 he returned to Manchester as a Senior Lecturer in Engineering but in 1921 he would move to the University of London King’s College as a Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Here he updated the Heat Engines Laboratory and also established a Hydraulics and Materials Laboratory. In 1935 he was elected a Fellow of Kings College.

In 1938 he would again move, this time to the University of Glasgow, where he stayed until 1951. He would take the position of Regius Professor of Civil Engineering and Mechanics primarily researching steel under stress. In 1940 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and between 1949 and 1951 he acted as President of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland.

Gilbert Cook died on 28th August 1951 at the Gardiner Institute of Medicine at the Western Infirmary, Glasgow.