14 May 2015

Britain’s oldest poppy seller found dead in Avon Gorge

Olive Cooke, 92, is found dead near Clifton Suspension Bridge after 76 years of fundraising. She had complained of losing money in the post and of being inundated by begging letters from charities.

Mrs Cooke began selling poppies in 1938 at the age of 16, after her father, a First World War veteran, set up a Royal British legion branch in Bedminster, Bristol.

She devoted her life to fundraising for the veterans’ charity after her husband, Leslie Hussey-Yeo, a Royal Navy sailor, was killed in action in Italy in 1943.

The mother-of-three went on to sell an estimated 30,000 poppies and was a famililar face on the streets of Bristol, standing in the doorway of the city’s cathedral every year in the lead-up to Remembrance Sunday.

Mrs Cooke’s body was found by police near the famous suspension bridge in Avon Gorge last Wednesday after onlookers reportedly saw her climb over railings with a stepladder.

Police are not treating the death as suspicious. An inquest is expected to be opened at Avon Coroner’s Court next week.

Friends said Mrs Cooke, who worked as a postwomen for 17 years, had been affected badly by the loss of £250 in cash she sent to a relative in the post two months ago.

And she had complained of receiving constant phone calls and hundreds of letters a month from charities pestering her for donations.

‘She lost her faith in other people’

In an interview in October 2014, Mrs Cooke, a breast cancer survivor, said: “I open and read every single one of them but my problem is I’ve always been one that reads about the cause then I can’t say no. The stories play on people’s generosity.”

A close friend, Michael Earley, 72, said: “It was because of the constant pestering but I know for definite the £250 was the one that really clinched it really.

“She lost faith in other people. When that £250 went she was not the same. She realised she couldn’t trust people. If only that post person could realise that money has been the fault of this situation.”

David Lowe, Royal British Legion’s area manager for the South West, said: “We are very sad to learn of the passing of Olive Cooke, who we came to respect and admire over more than seven and a half decades of service to The Royal British Legion.

“As well as collecting, Olive found time to become the standard bearer in the Bedminster Down Women’s section – a task she carried out for 54 years until 1998. Olive later became secretary and chairman of the section.

“Her dedication to the charity saw her presented with a special medal from The Royal British Legion to mark her achievements.

“Olive’s remarkable efforts over the years should be highly commended. She will be greatly missed, but not forgotten.”

Olive Cooke (picture:HTV)

‘I vowed to always sell poppies’

Speaking in 2013, Olive vowed that she would “never give up” selling her poppies, saying: “It is important to remember the people who died in the wars, and are still dying now.

“My father, Fred Canning, was in the Royal Irish Regiment and he had told me tales of how he fought at Gallipoli in the First World War, ever since I was a little girl sitting on his knee.

“The poppies took on a whole new meaning for me when I lost my first husband, Leslie, in 1943. We just had two and a half years together when he was killed on the submarine HMS Thunderbolt.

“It was lost in the Sicily invasion, March 1943, by depth charge. Losing my husband when I was just 21 years of age, I vowed to always sell poppies.”

She added: “There was a time when no one could go past without buying a poppy. It’s harder now but I’m still determined to help in whatever way I can.”