Name
Arthur Cooper
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Norfolk Regiment
4th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Pirton School Memorial
Biography
Arthur appears on the School War Memorial, confirming that he attended the school.
Parish and census records suggest three possible men:
The first was baptised on April 13th 1873 and was the son of James and Ann Cooper (née Shepherd). He would have been about forty-one at the outbreak of war. They had five children: Arthur (b 1873), John (bapt 1875), Harry (b c1878), Jane (b 1880) and Charles (b 1881).
The second, Arthur William, was born on July 25th 1881 to William and Mary Cooper (née Odell) and he would have been thirty-three at the outbreak of war. They had nine children: Clara (b c1866), Emma (b c1870), Mary Ann (bapt 1872), Charles (bapt 1875), Martha (bapt 1878), Arthur William (b 1881), Harry (b 1884), Ethel (b 1886) and Alice (b c1888). The North Herts Mail of November 19th 1914 reported that a Charles Cooper, likely to be Arthur’s brother, had offered himself as a recruit, but at thirty-nine was just one year too old to be accepted as a volunteer.
Arthur William Cooper married Rose Weeden of Pirton on October 5th 1901. By 1911, Arthur was a horse keeper on a local farm and they had two children: Violet May (b c1905) Hilda Rose (b c1906), but sadly two other children had died.
This Arthur died in 1967, aged eighty-six, and is buried in St. Mary’s churchyard.
The third man, Arthur Charles, was born on May 31st 1898 to Charles and Ruth Cooper (née Baines), and so he would have been sixteen at the outbreak of war. Baptism and census records, including 1911, identify eight children, one of whom had died. It is not entirely clear if Frederick Baines, a son to Ruth before her marriage, is included in the count, but is seems probable. The children who have been identified are Frederick (Baines, b c1895) and those born after their marriage, Arthur Charles (b 1898), Dorothy May (b 1900), Ernest (b c1903), George (b c1905), Annie (b c1906) and Frank (b 1910). Frederick was killed in the war and appears on the village memorial.
The North Herts Mail of November 19th 1914 reported that Charles Cooper, who would have been this man’s father, and the brother of Arthur William listed above, had offered himself as a recruit, but at thirty-nine was just one year too old to be accepted as a volunteer.
Unfortunately, at this time, it is not known which is the Arthur Cooper who served. The man who did serve is recorded twice, once in the Parish Magazine of September 1918 as being ‘called to service’, and then in the Parish Magazine of November 1918 as ‘enlisting recently’ and serving in the 4th Norfolk Regiment. As he was called up late in the war, it perhaps suggests he was the youngest of the three men, the third of those mentioned above, who would have then been twenty.
Acknowledgments
Text from the book ‘The Pride of Pirton’ by Jonty Wild, Tony French & Chris Ryan used with author's permission
