Cooper. Frank

He was born in Elsecar  on the 1st April, 1888, and lived in Hoyland Common, he married Elinor May Penn from Woolwich, Kent on the 31st August, 1915. Frank Cooper was a boot maker when he enlisted in the Royal Garrison Artillery, he could speak French and German fluently and hoped to be a Methodist Minister after the war, but he was  killed in action on the 21st March, 1918, while serving on the Western Front. Frank never saw his daughter  Gladys Irene Cooper, who was born four months later on the 18th July, 1918. When Gladys was a young girl Elinor took Gladys and went to live in Australia where Gladys married and raised six children who all live in Australia.

Picture from his granddaughter Dawn Brown

A paragraph from Gladys Irene's Journal,

My father was a soldier in the Royal Garrison Artillery having been born in Barnsley, Sheffield, England on the 1st April 1888. He was to become a Methodist minister on his release from the army. Unfortunately, this was not to be, he was killed in Flanders on 21st March 1918, four months before my birth on the 18th July 1918. I have learnt from various people that my father Frank Cooper was a good Christian gentleman, well educated and spoke French and German as fluently as English. My mother was very much in love with him and never fully recovered from the shock of his death.

Picture from his granddaughter Dawn Brown

Picture by June & Peter  Marsden