Private John Cooper
Duke of Wellington Regiment, 9th Battalion, Service no. 378520
Born: 1887.
Driver Joseph Cooper
Army Service Corps, Service no. 143093
Born: 28th February 1890. Died: 1979
Story
John, Joseph and their brother Thomas were sons of Thomas Cooper and Martha Wilks, and all three enlisted in the Army. John Cooper volunteered for service on 2nd September 1914 in Leeds, he was 5 ft 5 inches tall and had been a coal miner at Allerton Silkstone and Haigh Moor Collieries and had a scar on his right hand. John had a particularly eventful war: he served in France from 15th July 1915, and went absent without leave on multiple occasions, which caused him to be docked many days’ pay and to be confined to Barracks. On 6th June 1915 he was punished for falling out of the line of march without permission. On 19th December 1915 he was wounded, 5 days later he was wounded again, on Christmas Day 1915 he suffered gunshot and shrapnel wounds to his head, back and neck, and was treated in hospital. The impact wound to his head, back and neck, caused John to lose his teeth, so the Army supplied him with dentures. He was re-admitted again on 18th March 1916 with bronchitis, and stated that he was suffering from cardiac palpitations and stricture due to contracting Trench Fever. On 11th November 1916, John was re-admitted to hospital with diarrhoea, and after being caught AWOL on 20th January 1917, he was put on trial three days later, found guilty, and sentenced to 28 days labour in the field. He was admitted to hospital twice more in March with 1917 with diseases, and was eventually transferred to the Labour Corps under Service no. 11661.
Joseph Cooper was christened at the Kippax Wesleyan Methodist chapel on 16th April 1890, pictured below:
Joseph was a Baker at the Co-operative Society, 5 ft 6 inches tall, and enlisted 4th December 1915. Unlike his older brother John, Joseph went through the war with a clean disciplinary record. In 1939, he was living at 25 Penruth Grove, working as a Clerk with the Ministry of Labour. He was living with Kate Brown as his domestic help, and her son Denis. Joseph and Kate married in Knaresborough in 1942, and Joseph passed away in 1979. Their younger brother, Thomas Cooper, who was baptised in Kippax on 19th October 1895, and worked as a belt boy in the pit, also enlisted, but it is not known if he saw active service.
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