Canadian War Museum’s chief historian, Tim Cook, dies

Canadian military historian Tim Cook poses next to a maquette of the memorial at Vimy Ridge in the centre of the exhibition "Vimy - Beyond the Battle," at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, Wednesday, April 5, 2017.

OTTAWA — The Canadian War Museum says its chief historian and research director has died.

The museum’s CEO announced the death in a news release Sunday, saying Tim Cook was “instrumental in shaping the Canadian War Museum we know today.”

Caroline Dromaguet says Cook, who had served with the museum since 2002, played a large role in the popular permanent exhibition “For Crown and Country,” which is dedicated to the South African and First World Wars.

Dromaguet says he curated several major exhibitions, including" Victory 1918 - The Last 100 Days," “Communities at War” and “War and Medicine.” She says he also was the museum’s champion for “In Their Own Voices,” an oral history project collecting interviews of veterans and their loved ones.

Cook was a graduate of Trent University, the Royal Military College of Canada, and the University of New South Wales.

He was a prolific author who published 19 books and dozens of scholarly articles.

“As Canada’s preeminent military historian, Tim Cook’s contributions to the museum since 2002 have been enormous,” Dromaguet said in the news release.

“(He) was a passionate ambassador both for the museum and for Canadian military history. He has forever left his own mark on history.”

The statement did not give a cause of death for Cook, nor his age.

In a 2023 interview with The Canadian Press about the refurbishing of the National War Memorial in St. John’s and construction of a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier there, Cook said the two world wars are particularly important in understanding the development of Canada, and how they shaped society.

“Memorials help focus memory,” he said at the time.

“There’s a lot that has happened in the past, and we as Canadians, as a society, as communities, often decide what we will mark for remembrance and war, sacrifice and war,” he said. “Service and war is something that we as Canadians have said we will mark with monuments and memorials.”

In another 2023 interview, this one about the maintenance of graves by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Cook said he’d visited many of the cemeteries. He called them sacred places.

“They are filled with history. They are steeped in sorrow,” he said. “And they are very powerful spots.”

The museum noted Cook received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the Minister of Veterans Affairs Commendation and the Governor General’s History Award. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Member of the Order of Canada.

Dromaguet said Cook mentored numerous museum historians and paved the way for important future research.

She said a more formal opportunity to celebrate Cook’s contributions will be shared soon.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 26, 2025.

-- By Rob Drinkwater in Edmonton

The Canadian Press