Harry Newton Cootes – Colonel, United States Army

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Harry Newton Cootes of Virginia
Appointed from Virginia, Private, Sereant, and First Serveant, Company L, 4th U. S. Volunteer Infantry, 7 June to 3 October 1898
Honorably mustered out of the volunteer service, 8 June 1899
First Lieutenant, 35th Volunteer Infantry, 5 July 1899
Captain, 21 February 1900
Honorably mustered out of the volunteer service, 2 May 1901
First Lieutenant, 12th U. S. Cavalry, 2 February 1901

Commanding officer of Fort Myer, Virginia, 1930-33.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Mary Elizabeth Dickson Cootes Belin, born Episcopalian on May 9, 1912, in Norfolk, died at her home in Georgetown from complications due to Parkinson’s disease. She was the daughter of Colonel Harry Newton Cootes, U.S. Cavalry, Commandant of Fort Myer 1930-1933, from Staunton, Virginia, and Mary Louisa Cooke from Norfolk, Virginia.

Educated in Vienna where her father was military attache after World War I, she graduated from Smith College (cum laude) after also studying at the Sorbonne in Paris. Mrs. Belin spoke several languages fluently and worked as a translator.

Courtesy of Harry Lammot BelinA native of Staunton, Virginia, Colonel Cootes was educated at Staunton Military Academy and the Virginia Military Institute.  He enlisted as a private in the Spanish-American War and soon was advanced to Second Lieutenant.  He rose through successive ranks until 1918 when he was made a Colonel.

1903-05 – 2nd Tour, Philippines
1907 – Military Secretary, Jamestown Exposition
1909-11 – Aide-de-camp, Governor General Forbes of Philippine Islands.
1910 – Aide de camp, Secretary of War, J. M. Dickinson to China, Japan, Germany, Russia World War I, First Army Corps, 78th Division
Lieutenant-Colonel Harry N. Cootes, Chief of Staff; Aide to Secretary of War Newton D. Baker.
1916- Aide de camp to Chief of Staff and Secretary of War
1918 – Chief of Staff, 78th Division, Fort Dix, New Jersey
1918 – Colonel

His military assignments included that of attaché to the Czechoslovak Legation in Prague and the United States Embassy in Vienna.  Austria awarded him the Great Silver Cross and Czechoslovakia awarded him that nation’s Military Cross in 1928.

REGIMENTAL COMMANDERS, 3rd Army Cavalry Regiment – Harry Newton Cootes 25th Colonel 1930-1933

Other assignments held by Colonel Cootes were as aide to Secretary of War J. M. Dickinson in 1910-11, aide to Major General Hugh L. Scott, Chief of Staff 1916-17 and aide to W. G. Forbes, Governor General of the Philippines, 1909-10.

Service medals which he held included the Spanish-American War, Cuban Occupation, Philippine campaign, Mexican border campaign and the World War.
Also:

Wife:  Mary Louisa Cooke Cootes, born November 13, 1882, Norfolk, Virginia, died March 29, 1966.

Son – Merritt Cootes, born March 11, 1909, died November 26, 1998, Princeton, New Jersey.  He prepared at College Ile de France and Woodberry Forest. Princeton, class of 1931. Following graduation, he fulfilled his ambitions and entered the diplomatic service. He was a Foreign Service officer for a number of years and was stationed in, among other places, Hong Kong, Saigon, Lisbon, Rome, Moscow, Portau-Prince, and Lahore. He was in Florence when he retired, and in 1987 he returned to Princeton.
He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Jean Phillips (1922-2004), and one nephew, Harry Belin.

Thank you again for adding this additional information.
Harry Lammot Belin

COOTES, HARRY N
COLONEL US ARMY RETD

  • DATE OF DEATH: 10/28/1938
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 3  SITE 3911
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

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