Peter DF Cooke

Peter Cooke BA(Hons) is a self-employed historian who specialises in NZ military history. He formed the Defence of NZ Study Group in 1996 and edits its magazine Forts & Works. He also edits the journal The Volunteers of the NZ Military Historical Society Inc. He lives where the archives are–in Wellington. Peter will help with enquiries into NZ military history and research into the records of service personnel.
Contact 0274 512 312
petercooke_donz@icloud.com
Box 9724, Wellington 6141, NZ

Peter has a long list of published works. He edited and published a manuscript commissioned by the government but never released, Citizen Army–The New Zealand Wars Lost Official History (2024). That followed a quantitative history of all warship visits to NZ shores since 1642 in Ships of War in NZ Waters–380 Years of Naval Activity (2 Vols, 2023). He cut his teeth writing on home defences in Defending New Zealand–Ramparts on the Sea 1840-1950s (2 Vols, DONZ, 2000) and lobbied hard for military heritage at risk (including the north Miramar defence reserve, saved in 2011). He is most proud of Won by the Spade, How the Royal NZ Engineers Built a Nation (Exisle, 2019). He completed the ground-breaking study of New Zealand’s 1950s/60s Compulsory Military Training and National Service, Fit to Fight (David Ling, 2013). This followed work on the Royal New Zealand Electrical & Mechanical Engineers (Warrior Craftsmen, 2016), aspects of Royal New Zealand Artillery history (The Gunners, Raupo, 2008), Auckland Infantry (Auckland Regimental Assn, 2010) and The Territorials (and John Crawford, Random House, 2011). An interest in military technology saw a fanzine on the motor vehicle at war, Tank TV (1992-2004), a book on mine-proof vehicles in southern Africa and the world of trophy guns (1995) in Great Guns–The Artillery Heritage of NZ (with Ian Maxwell, DONZ, 2013). He published the book Duigan’s Circus–the NZ Engineer Tunnelling Company 1915-19 (2021, and Wrights Hill–NZ’s 9.2-inch Coastal Defence Batteries (2020). Along the way he did the NZ research for Tolga Örnek’s feature-length Gallipoli (Ekip Film, 2005), helped John Crawford on the Malone diaries for No Better Death (2005), documented Wellington RSA’s story (All Formed Up, Ngaio Press, 2008) and covered rugby in WWI (Balls, Bullets & Boots, Clive Akers with Bettina Anderson, NZ Rugby Museum, 2015). He has also written industrial histories, such as Shell in NZ (2004), IPENZ (2014) and one on Wellington bulk waterworks. He has appeared in documentaries: In Fear of Invasion (1993), Insult to Empire (2002), War Miners–The Covert Mission Beneath Arras (2023) and Never Forgotten–The Marines of Masterton (2025). Peter is working on a history of Philip Charlton’s WWII machine gun designs.