The Cook Sisters.

We would like to share with you the story of Maggie Cook, one of the five ‘Cook Girls’ that have worked at the Regent Palace Hotel in between 1919 – 1926.

click to enlarge

In October 2006 we have received a phone call from a lady called Pauline Clark, in hope that she could find some information about her mother’s sister – Maggie Cook, who ( according to her claims ) worked at the Regent Palace Hotel in the Grill Room as one of the ‘nippies’. Pauline has explained that her mum’s sister was celebrating her 100th birthday and wanted to surprise her by reminding her of the years spent at the Regent Palace which were the best years of her life mainly because she remembered the hotel as a place where she met her husband.

It was by a great coincidence that we had been sorting out some old images of the Regent Palace Hotel due to the hotel’s closure and came across a picture ( please see below ) of the ‘nippies’ in the Grill Room from round about the year 1922. We enlarged the image and sent it to Pauline in hope that this photograph would be of some use.

It was of a great surprised to us when we received an e-mail back from Pauline. We couldn’t believe when she wrote that not only she recognised her mum’s sister on the photograph but also her 3 other sisters ( Georgina Cook – known as Dot, Rosina Cook – known as Ena, Eliza Cook – Pauline’s mother ).What an amazing coincidence! Pauline went on explaining the precise positioning of the 4 sisters on the photograph and was even debating whether the head waiter ( Eddie Grosso ) standing in front of the main pillar was the man who married Maggie Cook! The last of the five sisters – Annie Cook is not in the picture.

Pauline has also very kindly forwarded to us these following details:

Maggie Cook married Eddie Grosso in 1920
Georgina Cook married Laurence, a waiter at the Regent Palace in 1924
Annie Cook started to work at the Regent Palace in 1926.
Eliza Cook worked in the Grill Room from 1919 to 1926 and married a Mr Buckle who worked at the Savoy. She met him at an afternoon tea dance in the Trocadero.
Rosina Cook worked at the hotel in 1922

We know that in the 1960s when immigrations was being encouraged from UK to Australia and the journey by boat was £10, Maggie and Eddie immigrated to Australia where Maggie still lives.

After Maggie’s 100th birthday celebrations, Pauline has sent us a picture of Maggie at her 100th birthday celebration looking at herself in the photograph ( above ).

It was all worth it!! What do you think?

Email: info@regentpalacehotel.co.uk