Tim Cook, the chief historian of the Canadian War Museum and the country’s “preeminent military historian,” has died, the museum announced Sunday.
Cook was “a passionate ambassador” for both the museum and Canadian military history, and his contributions to the Ottawa museum over the past two decades have been “enormous,” senior director of public affairs Yasmine Mingay said in a statement.
Cook published more than 19 books and won numerous awards, the museum said, including the Ottawa Book Award for literary non-fiction on four separate occasions.
In his 2022 book Lifeguards and Body Snatchers: Medical Care and the Fight for Survival in the Great War, Cook uncovered evidence that Canadian doctors were part of a British program that harvested organs from soldiers killed in the First World War without obtaining their consent.
“I had seen snippets of this in doctors’ letters and diaries, but I could hardly believe it,” Cook told CBC at the time. “It’s not in any of our history books. It’s not part of our history of how we treat the fallen.”
His other notable works included No Place to Run: The Canadian Corps and the Gas War in World War I and The Necessary War, Volume 1: Canadians Fighting in the Second World War: 1939-1943.
Both won the CP Stacey Award, presented annually for the best book in the field of Canadian military history.
Order of Canada
Late last year, Cook published The good alliesA deep dive into the relationship between the United States and Canada during World War II.
“As I was writing the book, I kept thinking: there are lessons [for] today. We are continually struggling to figure out: ‘How do we work with the United States? How can we do everything we can and at the same time take control of our own sovereignty?'” Cook told CBC Radio. All in one day in November 2024.
“The debate over two percent defense spending and other issues… is always with us. And yet we have been good allies.”
Cook’s numerous accolades also included receiving the Governor General’s History Award and being named a member of the Order of Canada.
The museum did not share the cause of Cook’s death.
