

You were the beautiful melody in the rhythm of our life.
Your music lives on.
Please share your pictures and stories on the page: Memories of Bern
Bern's Life In Brief
Bernard Cook, Bern to his friends, leaves behind:
- his wife, Laura;
- his children Matthew, Nick and Natalie; and
- his grandchildren, Zachery, Toby, Pippa, Ellie, Charlie and River.
The Early Years
Bern was born in St Thomas' hospital on 28th October 1957 where apparently, his mum, Doris, timed her contractions to the chimes of Big Ben.
Bern spent his early years living in a prefab in Stockwell with his father, Harry; mother, Doris; and younger brother Dave.
Whilst not a huge lover of school (or more likely, not a fan of being told what to do), he went to Larkwell Primary School then onto Henry Thornton Secondary School
Bern attended Battersea Boxing Club with his dad where he lasted one day, complaining it was too smelly!
Instead, Bern joined the scouts which, in many ways, shaped the man he would become. He remained in the scouts for many years, staying on into the venture scouts until he was about 21 where he met his lifelong friends; Paul, John, Devon, Lui and Phil Lakin who is sadly no longer with us. We hope they will share many of their memories on this memorial page: including their time playing Lacrosse, when Bern rode his motorbike into the back end of a bus, when he flipped his mini, his first spag bol and when he was held at gun point for his football. Hours of fun times they can share!
Family Life
In 1986, Bern moved from Mitcham to Brocks Drive then in about 1992 onto Churchill Road where they lived opposite Bern’s brother Dave and his family; Pam, Dana and Jakki.
Bern was a hands-on dad. Bern’s children will shortly share their own memories of their dad, what he meant to them and how he helped make them the beautiful independent children he was super proud of.
However, a few additional things Laura knows he wouldn’t mind talking about:
Bern was a massive lover of parties and BBQs throughout his whole life and has been known to BBQ in the snow, rain and even in the dark. Even camping at agility, he was known for BBQing breakfast, dinner and lunch for Maureen and Thierry.
Bern loved his home wherever that was and especially being outside in his garden where he would spend hours just standing contemplating life (often whilst shaving – in his pants). He was however terrified of wasps and would often be seen running away from them whilst trying not to seem uncool 😊
More recently Bern took up golf to spend time with his sons Matt and Nick; his son-in law, Brodie; and his grandson, Zac. This time was precious to Bern. Each year they would hold the Cook Cup competition where Bern proudly won the wooden spoon. That said, for a man who went from simply going along for a walk round the course to playing a full 18 holes without any practice, he did a pretty good job.
More recently Bern would look forward to the annual Cook Christmas hosted by his truly amazing daughter-in-law, Rachael. It was the one time the whole family would get together for food, fun and inevitably hours of games. Happy Times!
Bern at Work
After leaving school, Bern's dad, Harry, got him a job at British Relay. It was the redundancy money from this job which Bern used to buy his first home in Mitcham.
Bern spent most of his career working for the same company, albeit it went from Radio Rentals to Rediffusion to Thorn EMI and then finally called Quadriga.
Bern worked his way up from TV engineer to technical supply chain manager for the worldwide company.
Bern had many proud moments in his career, including in the early days getting promoted to the stage he could get a company van and then a company car which he could use for all the family.
Later Bern was proud to project manage Quadriga’s Genesis project – which involved designing and installing a TV system into hundreds of hotels worldwide enabling hotel guests to watch on-demand movies and use internet over TV – way before we all had Google and Netflix at home.
It was also at Quadriga that Bern met his wife-to-be – Laura. More about that later……
Bern’s Passions
In addition to his love for his family, Bern had two other great loves: Music and his home in Spain.
Music
Bern was touched by music his entire life. His Dad, Harry, bought him his first guitar as a young boy and then saved up to get him a Les Paul copy for his 18th birthday. This guitar was so special to Bern that it will be cremated with him here today.
Bern’s inspiration for music was Marc Bolan and T-Rex then onto David Bowie and the Rolling Stones but he loved a variety of music. He loved nothing more than listening and playing music, at home at a civilized tone then in the car at full volume!
Bern and his good friends Matt Allen and Alan French would spend hours and hours on end talking about music until one of the wives would inevitably intervene.
Bern was in bands his entire adult life. His first band was Medussa, his second band was Aquila. The Rough Diamonds played local gigs in Surrey (where Nick put in a guest appearance in 2005 and 2006) always ending up in Jan Savva’s famous Green Room for wine, cheese and crackers.
The Boobs (Bunch of Old Blokes Strumming) with H, Mick Thomas and Lee Palmer played mostly in Maidstone including Lee’s pub the White Horse where Laura and Carole would dance the night away.
More recently Bern created a band with his sons, Matt and Nick; and his son-in-law Brodie. His last gig was with them at Matt’s 40th and of which Bern was immensely proud. Bern was a perfectionist in the band and the boys would spend hours practicing in the studio. Bern was also constantly practicing at home at full volume while Sol and Joopy, his dogs would sing along.
Bern also loved to go to live bands often with Nick, Matt, Mark Collis, Matt Allen, John Cherno, Mick and others. He would come home from these gigs wired and full of the funs times that went along with them.
Bern has a huge guitar collection which was always off limits for his children. He mellowed more in his older days and even allowed the grandkids to touch them!
For Bern’s 50th Laura took him to America where he met (and kissed) his hero Les Paul and visited the Gibson factory in Memphis. He was allowed to pick any guitar he wanted as a present and the guitar you see here next to the coffin was his chosen guitar and is very special to him.
Spain
Bern’s lifelong ambition was to retire at 55 and have a holiday home in Spain. He retired on time and designed his dream villa in Almeria in Spain of which he was so incredibly proud. He called his villa, Los Guijarros (pronounced ‘Gi Harros’) which means pebbles in Spanish – his nickname for his daughter Natalie.
Every month Bern would escape the pressures of life and spend time in his villa in Spain where him and Laura met good friends Ian, Dee, Nigel and Mandy.
Bern loved nothing more than to spend time at the villa with Laura, the dogs, family and friends. So many happy memories there including evenings sat round the pool with Matt and Sally putting the world to right. More recently Bern would spend time with his children; Brodie his son-in-law; and grandchildren at the villa and he loved these times.
In September last year Bern, Laura and the dogs spent 6 weeks travelling to Spain and having the best time making memories she will never forget.
Bern & Laura
Bern met Laura at Quadriga in 2006 where she asked him to lunch one day in the works canteen and the rest is history. Their first official date was to Henley Regatta where they missed the last train and to get a cab home she made Bern hide in the bushes so the cab driver would take pity on a lone woman!
Bern built a wonderful life for himself and Laura from nothing. They filled their short time together full of fun, smiles, parties and friends. Bern had such a charm about him. A quiet shy man but to his friends he loved nothing more than to be loved and be the center of the party. He and Laura loved to throw parties at their home, Iris, in Boxhill, named after their favourite song which was played for you earlier. Bern and Laura would for years spend every Friday night with Nicki and Steve, Sam and Mark at the Box Tree on Boxhill after which they would wind their drunken way home together, usually waking up the neighbours. One said night Bern and Nicki famously ended up in a lavender bush. It is still debated as to who dragged who into the bush.
Bern had a way with words… a funny way of saying things when he wasn’t sure what to say. Laura remembers him introducing her to Devon Brown, an old friend as ‘the lady I am with at the moment.’ Then when they got engaged he introduced her to the barista at Starbucks which he frequented at least once a day as ‘a friend of mine’.
Bern believed in making dreams happen; He’d often quote to Laura the lyrics of another favourite song: ‘we’ll fill in the missing colours in each other’s paint-by-number dreams’. Bern certainly did that. Driving to work one day Laura said she liked a car (a Daewoo she thought). A week later he told her it was an Aston Martin and he’d worked out how they could buy one. They went on to own two Aston Martins.
Laura loves dogs and although he was terrified of them; they went on to have 5 dogs and he famously became known as the Dadster to all her dog friends. Bern adored his dogs, Sol, Luka, Missy, Sierra and Joopy. Most weekends through the summer he’d be found either building agility jumps and equipment or camping in a wet muddy field in the rain so Laura could compete with the dogs at agility or attend agility training camps. It was through agility they met so many of their good friends including Maureen and Thierry, Sandra and Mark, Denise and Mike, Stacey, Virginia and Ruth and many more.
Bern and Laura got married in the summer of 2019, with an intimate family wedding in the UK and a fairytale week long wedding in Spain joined by 40 of their closest friends. The best of times.
Bern was a sentimental man:- every time Bern would go to Spain Laura would say ‘Te amo muchos’,which means I love you lots. He would reply ‘Te amo mas’, which means I love you more.
A deeply spiritual man and always one for quoting song lyrics, one of their frequent sayings was the lyrics to a Bruce Springsteen song: ‘I’ll wait for you, and should I fall behind; wait for me…’ Bern is simply waiting for her til they can be together again. Never gone and always by her side.
Favourite Pictures



















Memories of Bern
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