Merton Cooke, 105, farewelled at Palmdale service

WHEN Merton Cooke joined the fireys they were still wearing brass helmets, WWII was brewing and a 7m shark fatally mauled a swimmer off Dee Why.

Merton Cooke at 103 standing with his old Mack fire engine that he drove in his early days as a firefighter at The Rocks in Sydney.

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THE Central Coast has farewelled Australia’s longest surviving retired firefighter after Merton Walter Langford Cooke succumbed to medical complications aged 105.

Born August 9, 1912 at Stanmore in Sydney, Mr Cooke moved with his parents to the Northern Beaches when he was about five or six.

His daughter Leslie Sims said Mr Cooke’s father was a barber and timber cutter who, like so many families, struggled during the Great Depression.

“I think it had an impact on him,” she said.

“He remembered some days they had no food so he had just cups of tea.”

Merton Cooke, aged 101, remembering the fatal shark attack at Dee Why in 1934.

A bright student Mr Cooke gained selection into Sydney Boys High School but was only able to complete one term of his Intermediate Certificate after his parents could no longer afford the ferry fares across from Manly.

He began painting roofs and running errands at 14 before joining the Dee Why Surf Club two years later.

Mr Cooke opened a barber shop with his father aged 19 and later joined the local fire brigade as a volunteer.

He became a full-time firefighter in 1938 and continued with the now Fire & Rescue NSW until his retirement in 1972 aged 60.

Frank Riley (left) and his mate Laurie Shields.

Merton Cooke's Queen's Fire Medal for Exemplary Fire Service. Pic: AAP Image/Troy Snook

But it was an otherwise unremarkable day in March 1934 when he was a young lifesaver at Dee Why that would stay with him forever.

Local teenager Frank Riley, 18, was swimming with about 60 others when a huge shark attacked, tearing off his left leg.

Mr Cooke recalled fellow lifesaver Laurie O’Toole dived into the water in a bid to save Mr Riley but there was no way his rescuers could stop him bleeding to death.

A local fisherman laid baits from kerosene drums off the beach and caught a large shark a few days later, which was estimated to be nearly 7m-long.

Merton Cooke with his granddaughter Jackie Sims and daughter Lesley Sims at their second hand shop Memory Lane. Picture: Waide Maguire.

“It was cut open but there was no sign it was the one that killed Riley,” Mr Cooke later told the Manly Daily.

“It was put on display and we raised more than £200 for the family.”

Mr Cooke moved to Toukley about six years ago and remained active with the retired firefighter’s association up until his death on September 16.

His daughter Mrs Sims said he was well known around The Entrance where he would sit in his granddaughter’s second hand shop Memory Lane every weekend and share a yarn.

He was remembered at a moving service at Palmdale this afternoon.