Looking for Captain Cook of BEA in 1964

[Proplinerman]

In the summer of 1964, aged 6, I was on board a BEA Vanguard at Manchester, with my parents and one of my sisters, waiting to take off to fly to London, when the stewardess (that's what they were called in those days) welcomed us aboard "on behalf of Captain Cook and his crew."

I remember the name very distinctly, as I had recently been reading about the sea captain/explorer named Captain Cook and in my innocence, I said to my mother, "I didn't know Captain Cook was still alive." She gently explained to me that it wasn't the same Captain Cook.

This is about the only occasion I have flown where I remember the name of any of the pilots. So Captain Cook, are you still out there? He/you'll be retired by now, but this Vanguard fan remembers you.

[OUAQUKGF Ops]

Capt Cook B.E.A.

In the early 1950s I lived at Chalfont St Peter in Bucks. The skies above were full of airliners and visits to Denham and the old hulks of Halifaxes lying in the isolated dispersals at dear old Bovingdon kindled my interest in Aeroplanes. As a little boy I was invited to tea at the home of a Captain Cook who flew Elizabethans for B.E.A. Whether he is the one and same as your pilot who knows? He lived just off Misbourne Avenue in Chalfont St Peter almost opposite the old Water Hall Hotel which was by the main road that links Chalfont St Peter and Chalfont St Giles.

[Proplinerman]

Thanks for that and hopefully this was/is the man. Trouble is Cook is such a common name.

[Newforest2]

BA 'Human Resources' should be able to tell you whether he is still alive and receiving a pension.

[Proplinerman]

Thanks for that too and I'll check with them.