Robin Cook was born Robert Finlayson Cook on 28 February 1946 at Bellshill, Lanarkshire.Nicknamed Robin at school, he attended Aberdeen Grammar School before studying English Literature at Edinburgh University. A councillor in Edinburgh between 1971 and 1974, the passionate horse-racing fan was MP for Edinburgh Central between 1974 and 1983.
He held frontbench posts for Labour since 1986, when he was appointed as a spokesman on economic affairs, which was followed by a long spell as shadow health secretary.Mr Cook took over the trade and industry brief in 1992 before becoming Mr Blair's foreign affairs spokesman in 1994 - a role he continued as foreign secretary when Labour came to power in 1997.
He began his Parliamentary career on the left of the Labour party, but under Tony Blair dropped his commitment to unilateral nuclear disarmament and withdrawal from the European Union and praised Mr Blair's "Third Way".There were high expectations when he took on the role of foreign secretary, but he had a rough ride in the job.
He effectively made himself a hostage to fortune by declaring that he would bring an "ethical dimension" to foreign policy - a vow which often came back to haunt him, particularly after he sanctioned the sale of 16 Hawk jet fighters to Indonesia.
His split and eventual divorce from his wife - with Mr Cook revealing an affair with his secretary to his wife Margaret as they prepared to head off on holiday after a phone call from Downing Street - caused a welter of embarrassing headlines. However, after eventually marrying his mistress, Gaynor Regan, in a secret ceremony, many of Mr Cook's troubles seemed behind him as Labour approached the 2001 general election.
It was a major surprise when he was demoted to become Leader of the Commons in Tony Blair's post-election reshuffle. Although his new job represented a step down, Mr Cook proved very comfortable in the role and espoused a commitment to modernisation.He initiated significant reforms of the House of Commons, with sweeping changes to hours and procedures. Attempts to reform the House of Lords, however, proved more difficult, while there was an embarrassing defeat on plans to take select committees out of the control of the whips.
He spectacularly resigned from Tony Blair's Cabinet in March 2003 over the Iraq crisis. Six months after quitting his cabinet post in 2003, Mr Cook said he had become "increasingly angry" at himself for not trying harder to persuade the prime minister against going to war with Iraq. His stance on the Iraq war - and his resignation speech - only enhanced his reputation as a man of principle and a great Parliamentarian.
On August 6, 2005, Cook was climbing the mountain Ben Stack in Sutherland, Scotland, with Gaynor, when he suffered a severe heart attack. He was taken by helicopter from the mountain to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness where he was pronounced dead. The post mortem revealed that Cook died of hypertensive heart disease.