Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Geoffrey Day Thomas Cooper MBE was born in Adelaide on the 2nd of April 1912. He was born into a well-known brewing family, owners of the Coopers Brewery. Geoffrey attended Prince Alfred College and during his time there he joined the army cadets, completing Senior Cadets during 1930-31. Later, Cooper spent time as part of the 27th Battalion, being a part of the unit for a just over a year between June 1934 and August 1935. He then completed further training, including infantry training at Woodside from the 16th to the 25th of October 1935 and a 10-day course also at Woodside from the 25th of October to the 3rd of November 1938. Cooper had already established himself in the Australian Army prior to the war, having been promoted to Lieutenant on the 20th of May 1935, then Captain in 1939. His home address at the time of enlistment was 356 Kensington Road, Leabrook in Adelaide, and he worked as a mechanical engineer before he enlisted in the AIF on the 10th of October at Keswick, aged 27.

On the 13th of October 1939, Cooper was posted to the 2/10th Battalion with the rank of Lieutenant, commencing his duty with the Battalion on the 8th of November. He was taken by train from Adelaide to the town of Greta in New South Wales on the 14th of December. In early April 1940, he married future politician Jessie Mary McAndrew at St Stephen’s Presbyterian Church in Sydney before he embarked from Sydney for overseas service in the Middle East on the 5th of May, being diverted to the Gourock, Scotland after the Fall of France, arriving on the 18th of June. Cooper spent 5 months in the UK before embarking for the Middle East on the 17th of November, arriving there on New Years Eve of 1940. On New Years Day, 1941 Geoffrey Cooper was appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire. Later that year on the 14th of March, Cooper was detached from his unit for special duty, re-joining the 2/10th Battalion on the 26th. He was later appointed to Major on the 5th of July 1941 before being seconded in his battalion whilst attending staff school in Haifa, Israel between the 8th of September and 28th of December. The beginning of 1942 saw Cooper transferred to the 2/27th Battalion on the 14th of January 1942 where he was promoted to Temporary Lieutenant Colonel. Later that month on the 29th he embarked in Egypt aboard H.M.T. “île De France”, being transhipped at Bombay to S.S. “City of London” on the 12th of February and arriving in Adelaide on the 24th of March.

The 2/27th spent time in Queensland preparing for deployment in the Pacific. Cooper participated in Combined Operations School in the 3rd Military District between the 18th and 30th of July 1942, before embarking at Brisbane aboard “Zebulon Pike” for New Guinea on the 7th of August. Shortly after arriving at Port Moresby on the 14th of August, Cooper was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. Initially the 2/27th was kept at Port Moresby while the Battle of Milne Bay was fought, before moving north to join the Kokoda Track. On the 6th of September, the 2/27th assumed a defensive position at Mission Ridge. The battalion fought off a Japanese offensive over the next two days before a Japanese flanking move left them with no choice but to retreat. The 2/27th spent a tough 2 weeks tracking their way through harsh jungle with low rations to re-join with other units at Jawarewe. After meeting up with supporting units, Cooper was evacuated to the Australian Infectious Diseases Hospital with dysentery, staying there between the 22nd and 26th of September before being returned to his unit. His battalion were given

a moment of rest after this, being withdrawn to Port Moresby, before being sent to Gona on the 28th of November.
It was during the fighting at Gona that Cooper sustained a shrapnel wound, incising his right shoulder, on the 1st of December 1942. The next day he was evacuated by the 2/4 Australian Field Ambulance to the 2/9 Australian General Hospital where he stayed briefly, before embarking from New Guinea on HS ‘Manunda’ on the 6th of December. After a 6-day trip at sea, Cooper arrived in Brisbane on the 12th, where he was taken to the 103rd General Hospital in the Baulkham Hills by train.

Cooper was relinquished of command of the 2/27th, with the command being taken by Lieutenant Colonel John Bishop in March 1943. The injured Cooper was appointed as an instructor at Senior Wing Staff School on the 11th of March. He was detached for special duty from the 9th to 13th of July, although it is unclear what this entailed. Cooper was later appointed a Certified Instructor at Junior Technical School on the 10th of December where he remained until he was placed upon R.S.L. on the 14th of June 1944. On the 23rd of August, Cooper was transferred to the Reserve of Officers for his last day of full-time duty.

After the death of his father in 1944, Cooper and his wife Jessie moved to Adelaide where Cooper became a director of the family company. 10 years later in 1954 the couple welcomed their first and only child, James McAndrew. His wife, Jessie, became one of the first two women elected to State Parliament in 1959, commenting that ‘she would fit in her housework in the same way as a male member fitted in the running of an orchard or an accountant’s office’ when asked how she would combine political and home life. Cooper worked as chairman of the Coopers Brewery from 1969 until 1990, before his son James took over as a director. On the 24th of June 2002, Geoffrey Cooper passed away, aged 90.

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