Name
Hanway Cooper
2 May 1892
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
01/11/1914
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Sub-Lieutenant
Royal Navy
H.M.S. "Monmouth"
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Searched but not found
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
PLYMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL
1
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, HMS Monmouth Book of Remembrance, Monmouth Priory (St Mary's Church) Monmouth, Wales
Pre War
Hanway Cooper was born in Hampstead, Middlesex on 2 May 1892, the son of William and Marion Cooper and the youngest of four children. He was baptised at St John's Church, Hampstead, Camden on 9 June 1892. The family were then living at 37 Netherhall Gardens, Hampstead.
On the 1901 Census he was listed with his mother at Netherhall Gardens, with three servants but his father was not with them. In 1911 his mother and sister Dorothy were living at Springfield, Gravel Hill in Boxmoor, near Hemel Hempstead. His father was at that time in America where he died in 1913 in Washington DC.
Hanway was from a naval family and was named for his great-great uncle, Admiral Sir James Hanway Plumridge who fought in the Crimean War. He was educated at St Christopher's School, Eastbourne, Sussex, and from 15 January 1905 joined the Royal Navy at the Royal Naval College, Osborne, Isle of Wight. Osborne House had been Queen Victoria's summer residence and following her death in 1901 it became a junior officer training college for the Royal Navy in 1903. After Osborne he attended Britannia College, Darmouth, Devon and was listed on the 1911 Census as a Midshipman at Devonport.
He was appointed Acting Sub Lieutenant on 15 Sept 1912 and Sub Lieutenant on 15 November the same year. He served on HM ships Commonwealth, Rattlesnake, Warrior, Britannia, Dryad, Circe, Pembroke and Shannon and was described as a zealous and hardworking and a very capable and promising officer.
Wartime Service
At the outbreak of war he was appointed to HMS Monmouth, an armoured cruiser. It was sent to South America in search of the German light cruisers Karlsruhe and Dresden. Eventually as part of a squadron with the Glasgow, Good Hope and Otranto, the Monmouth met the German East Asiatic Squadron under Admiral Graf von Spee off Coronel, Chile. The two German armoured cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, along with three light cruisers, Dresden, Leipzig and Nurnberg made contact at about 6.00 pm on 1 November and with superior speed of their ships and range of their guns they blew up and sank Good Hope, soon after followed by the Monmouth with the loss of all hands. The Glasgow and Otranto escaped.
Hanway was to have been promoted to Lieutenant on 15 November 1914 but died in the sinking of HMS Monmouth on 1 November 1914 . His name is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial, United Kingdom.
In 1989 a memorial was erected at Coronel, Chile and the memorial plaque reads "In memory of the 1418 officers and sailors of the British Military Squadron and their Commander-in-Chief, Rear Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock, who sacrificed their lives in the Naval Battle of Coronel. their only tomb is the sea"
Additional Information
His mother was granted probate of his estate on 5 May 1915 in London with effects of £381 7s 11d. His brother Arthur Miles Gilpin Cooper who served in the 12th Royal Berks Regt. committed suicide in 1916 and is buried in Brookwood, Surrey.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www/hemelatwar.org., www.livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk., www.hemelheroes.com., www.snowdon.eclipse.o.uk
