Capt Arthur de Bells Adam (MC)
1885 - 1916

CPL David Wallace Crawford
1887 - 1916

Lce-Corpl John Joseph Nickle
1894 - 1916

Pte 17911 Morton Neill
1897 - 1916

Lieut Edward Stanley Ashcroft
1883 - 1918

Pte 25749 Henry Cooper

Age: 30
From: Liverpool
Regiment: 13th Kings
Died on Saturday 31st August 1918
Commemorated at: H.a.c. Cemetery, Ecoust-st. Mein
Panel Ref: I.C.38

Given his age and his father’s name from CWGC, Henry Cooper appears to be this man, born in Liverpool in the September quarter of 1887, the eldest son of William Henry Cooper and his wife Margaret (née Ritchie), who married in 1884. He had an older sister Caroline born in 1885; both her and Henry’s birth registration give the mother’s maiden name as Richards. He had younger siblings John, born in 1889, Thomas 1891, and William 1893, all with mother Ritchie. A daughter Margaret was born in the December quarter of 1895, mother Richie (sic).

In 1891 the family is living at 126 Friar Street, Everton, in the household of John and Ann Ritchie. His father William is a baker, 32, his mother Margaret is 29. There are three children in the household; Caroline 5, Henry 3, and John 1.

His mother died in December 1895, when Henry was 8 years old. It is possible his mother died in childbirth or of complications after the birth of Margaret. Margaret Cooper, age 31, of 83 Priory Street, was buried on Christmas Day in a public grave in Kirkdale Cemetery. However, another burial record shows her buried in a private grave on the 09th January 1896.

His father, widowed with five young children, remarried in 1899 to Isabella Hawitt, who had children Edward, John, and Isabella. Together they also had Alice and Elsie.

1901 finds his father and stepmother with seven children at 83 Priory Street. His father is a journeyman baker, Henry is 13. Caroline is living with Campbell relatives.

By 1911 both Henry and sister Caroline are living with their aunt and uncle Caroline (née Cooper) and Brooks Campbell and their five children at 124 Breck Road. His sister Caroline is 25, a seamstress, and Henry is 23, a house painter in the building industry.

His father and stepmother are living at 58 Rishton Street, Everton with his stepbrothers Edward and John Hawitt, half sisters Alice and Elsie Cooper, and his brothers Thomas, 19, William, 17, and sister Margaret, 15.

Henry enlisted in Liverpool as Private 25749, 17th Battalion, King’s Liverpool Regiment. The amount of the War Gratuity suggests that he enlisted in the spring of 1915.

Henry arrived in France on 29th December 1915, thus earning his 1914-1915 Star. At some point, possibly after being wounded, he was transferred to the 4th Battalion K.L.R.

His name appeared in the list of Wounded published in the Liverpool Daily Post on 14th September 1917, and again on 7th May 1918 in the Weekly Casualty List:

Cooper, 25749 H. (Hoylake) Wounded.

His medal roll shows only 17th and 4th battalions, but he was killed in action while serving with the 13th K.L.R. on 31st August 1918, aged 30.

Details of the action in which Henry was killed were recorded in the Battalion diary as follows:

August 30 – At night time the battalion moved up in preparation for an attack on Ecoust.

August 31 – the Battalion attacked and were successful in obtaining their objective as also did the 1^st Gordon Highlanders on their Left. The Battalion on the Right flank, however, did not get their objective and this necessitated a withdrawal temporarily birth of Margaretand subsequently the Battalion re-took the objective though suffering heavy casualties.

Estimated Casualties: 9 Officers, 200 Other Ranks.

Henry now rests in H.A.C. Cemetery, Ecoust-St. Mein, where his headstone inscription reads,

“AT REST”.

The enemy positions from Doignies to Henin-sur-Cojeul, including the village of Ecoust, were captured on 2 April 1917, by the 4th Australian and 7th Divisions. This cemetery was begun by the 7th Division after the battle, when 27 of the 2nd H.A.C., who fell (with one exception) on the 31st March or the 1st April, were buried in what is now Plot I, Row A. After the German counter-attack near Lagnicourt on the 15th April, twelve Australian gunners were buried in the same row. Rows B, C and part of D were made in August and September 1918, when the ground had been recaptured by the 3rd Division after five months enemy occupation. The 120 graves thus made were the original H.A.C. Cemetery; but after the Armistice graves were added from the battlefields of Bullecourt and Ecoust and from a number of smaller burial grounds.

There are now nearly 2,000, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, over half are unidentified and special memorials are erected to 17 soldiers from the United Kingdom and 14 from Australia, known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of 34 soldiers from the United Kingdom, buried in other cemeteries, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire. The cemetery covers an area of 5,801 square metres and is enclosed by a low red brick wall.

The pension card shows that Henry left a widow, Annie E. who was born on 30th April 1884. A likely marriage is found for Henry Cooper and Annie E. Jones in the Presbyterian Church, Breeze Hill, in the March quarter of 1918, when he must have been home on leave or recuperating from wounds. If any children were born to the marriage they did not survive, as the pension card shows no minor children.

Details of the marriage were reported in the Liverpool Echo on 05th February 1918:

COOPER-JONES - February 4, at Breeze Hill Presbyterian Church HENRY COOPER ("Pals," France), eldest son of William Cooper, Everton, to ANNIE ELIZABETH JONES, eldest daughter of Mr and Mrs Apollas Jones of Walton.

Annie’s addresses are given as “Minsterley”, Church Road, Hoylake, “Holme Leigh”, King’s Gap, Hoylake, and 74 Eversley Street, Princess Road, Liverpool. Annie was awarded a pension of 13/9d a week from March 1919 and received Henry’s Army effects, including a War Gratuity of £17.

Henry's death was reported in the Liverpool Echo on 07th October 1918:

KILLED IN ACTION

COOPER - August 31, killed in action, Private HARRY COOPER, the loving and dearly loved husband of Cissie Cooper (Jones), 74 Eversley Street. (We prayed that he might have life, but God hath given him life eternal. Loved by all.)

His father died aged 78 in 1937, living at 65 Rishton Street, and was buried in Kirkdale Cemetery with Henry’s mother Margaret.

We currently have no further information on Henry Cooper, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.

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