Canada’s historical and cultural community is mourning the loss of Tim Cook, the chief historian at the Canadian War Museum and one of the country’s most influential voices on military history. Cook died at 54, the museum confirmed in a statement on Sunday. No cause of death was disclosed.
Cook was remembered by colleagues as “a passionate ambassador for both the museum and Canadian military history,” said Caroline Dromaguet, president and CEO of the Canadian War Museum. Over more than two decades, Cook shaped how Canada remembers its soldiers — not just through exhibitions, but through a prolific body of work that bridged scholarly insight and public storytelling.
A Historian Who Rewrote the Record
Author of 19 acclaimed books, Cook illuminated many of the lesser-told stories of war. His 2022 book Life Savers and Body Snatchers: Medical Care and the Struggle for Survival in the Great War exposed unsettling evidence that Canadian doctors were part of a British program that harvested organs from fallen soldiers without consent — a revelation he described as “nowhere in our history books.”
In earlier works like No Place to Run: The Canadian Corps and Gas Warfare in the First World War and The Necessary War, Cook chronicled the physical and psychological realities of combat with a level of empathy and depth rarely seen in military history. Both titles earned him the C.P. Stacey Award, given annually to the best book in the field.
Scholar, Storyteller, and Citizen
Beyond the battlefield narratives, Cook helped Canadians grapple with their national identity through war’s enduring moral and political questions. His final book, The Good Allies (2024), examined Canada’s wartime relationship with the United States — and its lessons for today’s debates about defence, sovereignty, and cooperation.
“We’re still struggling with the same questions — how to work with the United States while maintaining our own control,” Cook told CBC Radio last year.
His honors included four Ottawa Book Awards, the Governor General’s History Award, and appointment to the Order of Canada, cementing his place among the nation’s most respected historians.
Legacy of Integrity and Curiosity
For scholars and readers alike, Cook’s passing marks the loss of a vital national voice — one who ensured Canada’s wartime sacrifices, controversies, and human stories were neither simplified nor forgotten.
As tributes pour in from academics, veterans, and museum colleagues, one sentiment stands out: Tim Cook didn’t just write history — he made it matter.
