Alexander Robert COOK, born in 1877, was a schoolteacher living in West Unst, Shetland. At the Military Service Tribunal for the North Isles on 23 March 1916 he was allowed only exemption from combatant service, resulting in call-up to the 3rd Scottish Company, Non-Combatant Corps, with which he refused to comply. He was arrested by the civil police, taken to the Sheriff Court, handed over to a military escort, and taken to Fort George on 6 March 1917. There he refused orders to put on a uniform, leading to court-martial and 112 days imprisonment, to be served in Wormwood Scrubs in London. The Central Tribunal found him a genuine CO and offered him the Home Office Scheme, which he refused, so at the end of his sentence he was returned to his unit,when he again disobeyed and was imprisoned for a year, at Barlinnie Prison, Glasgow. Released to his unit, as unwell, he was in and out of hospitals with mental and physical problems, eventually dying at Dykebar War Hospital, Paisley, on 13 June 1919.

He is buried in a Commonwealth War Grave in a civilian cemetery, Midlothian.