| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Robert was born in Beverley the 4 Jan 1895 and baptised at Beverley Minster the 21 Feb 1896, the son of James Cooper, a tanners labourer and Sarah Anne (nee Ackroyd), who married in 1874. The family lived in Sparkmill Row and later at 56 Flemingate. Robert was a member of the Church lads’ Brigade in 1910 and 1911 and was described by the commanding officer as “of good character” and “a big strong lad” but of a “weak disposition”. By 1911 Robert was working as a tanner’s labourer.
On 1 Mar 1912 Robert joined the Territorial Force and became a Private in the East Riding of Yorkshire Imperial Yeomanry and attended the annual camps. Mobilised at the start of the war in Aug 1914 the 1st/1st Battalion were sent to Egypt in 1916. They undertook desert patrols and were involved in the defence of the Suez Canal from Turkish attack. Defeat of the Turks extended the war into Gaza and Palestine. By the end of 1917 many members of the 1st/1st (and other involved Yeomanries) were converted into infantry and assigned to the Machine Gun Corps in France in early 1918. Robert may have joined the 102nd (Lincolnshire and East Riding Yeomanry) Battalion of the MGC but this cannot be verified. He was seriously wounded at some point in 1918, sufficient for him to be discharged from the Army in Feb 1919 (with a Silver War Badge). He also received the War and Victory medals.
Robert was back in the UK in late 1918 and he married Alice May Emery at Beverley Minster on 25 Aug 1918, their son Terence, was born 1920. Robert remained a tanner’s labourer by 1939 he was a “foreman/labourer” doing “engineering work”, the family were living at 2 Well Gardens (Arnott’s Buildings). Robert died in Feb 1950 aged 55 and was buried in Queensgate Cemetery, Beverley on the 28 Feb 1950, Alice died in 1967.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |