Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Son of Henry Edward Cooper and Hannah Leuwin  Cooper nee Holthouse of Gladdiswoode, Armidale, NSW formerly of C/- C. Dickons of Bishops Registry, Armidale, NSW and Hamilton, Victoria

Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal

ARTHUR EDWARD COOPER (30.3.1896 - 16.7.1917)
Called Arthur

From Bishops Court, Armidale. His father was Bishop Henry Edward Cooper who laid the foundation stone of the TAS Chapel on 5.9.1902 and who dedicated 2 windows in the eastern end of the Chapel  21.10.1913 in memory of Rev. T.K. Abbott, Headmaster, who died suddenly on 6.12.1912. Bishop Cooper died on 1.7.1916. At TAS 6 years Feb. 1908 to Dcc. 1913. He was Captain the School in 1913  and Day Boy Prefect. On Armidalian Committee, School Club Committee and in the Drama Club. Passed Junior exam 1912 and matriculated with Honours in Senior exam 1913. In that exam he got first  class in English and was proxime accessit to the English medal and achieved second class Honours in French. His health was frail, apparently from threatened appendicitis.
After leaving school he went to St. Paul's College, Sydney University to study Arts. He wrote to the Armidalian giving his "First Impressions of the University' - "The first day I went to St. Paul's, all was  very dreary. The men had not yet arrived and everything was chaos and confusion, owing to the presence of the workmen installing the electric light. They did not finish the job until well into term,  behind contract, as is usual with all such work. The Common Room struck me as the first luxury: It is large, with many easy chairs in which to be thoroughly comfortable; coffee there, after dinner at  night, a pleasant but practice – dangerous because of the tremendous strain it is to go away to work afterwards. The Lectures succeed in one thing at least, they develop the speed of hand-writing." He graduated B.A. in 1916.

Enlisted at Armidale 29.9.1916 in his 3rd year at Sydney University, 3 months after the death of his father.
Served in the 33rd Battalion A.I.F. and became a 2nd Lieut. A letter to his mother written In France "Reflections on the Battle Field" was printed in the Armidalian. "There is uncommonly little, leisure  here -to sleep, and get clean and is almost too big a task for the time we get to do it in. The forests here are a glory in summer. How I would love to see them in peace time: I passed through one  night of perfect glory of calm stillness and scent - the heavy perfumed scent woods - broken only by the birds. They are havens of blissful coolness in the day time. Alas! The artillery is always spoiling  things with their infernal row. Good luck to 'em, all the same. They mean life to us”.
Killed — He met his death 2 weeks after being given his commission. "He had returned to company, headquarters after being relieved at the front line, and had just left his dug-out and was standing by  the telephone at a time when shells were falling fast, when he was hit by a piece of flying shell. He suffered no pain: death was instantaneous.” He was killed aged 21.
Buried Belgium 42 Kandahar Cemetary, Neuve-Eglise

Obituary: “A very gentle, thoughtful lad he proved to be, the soul of honour and courtesy, with an instinctive reverence for holy things blending very quaintly yet happily with a pretence that he was a  "heretic'' on this or that point of theology on which he was, busy doing a little honest private thinking at the time ...I found myself wishing his physical weakness were still weaker, weak enough at any  rate to close the door absolutely against soldier service" (Lewis Goulburn, Warden of Paul's In Armidalian Obituary) In a letter of condolence to his mother, Lieut.-Col. Morshead, a former master at TAS,  wrote of him "As your son distinguished himself at school, did he in the field, only in a greater measure. He was promoted over the heads of others, but more than justified it. I saw a great deal of his work in the Battle of Messines and it was his gallant conduct and hard work there, as well as his character and personality, that won for his rapid promotion. The work of officers lately has been    and exacting; your son carried out every duty cheerfully and efficiently. I deeply deplore his loss.”

Memorial - His name is on the fountain in Armidale Central Park and in the Armidale Memorial Library. It is also on the Sydney University Honour Roll on the southern side of the archway of the Great  Tower. There was a plaque in his memory in the Bishops Court Chapel at St Paul’s College.