Roll of Honour of Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry

Thomas Henry COOPER (1896–1918)

Thomas Henry Cooper was born in Headington Quarry in 1896, the son of Frederick Walter Cooper (born in Old Headington on 7 March 1868 and baptised at St Andrew’s Church on 27 September) and his second wife Susannah or Susan Carey (born in Stratton Audley in 1869/70 and baptised there on 13 February 1870).

Thomas’s father Frederick Walter Cooper married his first wife, Kate Kislingbury, at Holy Trinity Church on 15 December 1889, and they had one child:

• Frederick Walter Cooper (privately baptised by Holy Trinity Church on 20 August 1890);
  died aged two months and buried in the churchyard on 27 August 1890).

Kate died at the age of 24 less than a year after the death of her baby, and was buried in Holy Trinity churchyard on 15 July 1891.

At the time of the 1891 census Thomas’s future mother, Susan(nah) Carey (21), was working as a children’s maid for the Wykeham family at Tythrop House at Kingsey near Thame.

The banns for the marriage of Susannah Carey and the widower Frederick Walter  Cooper were published at Stratton Audley near Bicester in July and August 1893, but it is hard to find their marriage. They had eight children:

• Frederick Walter Cooper (born at Headington Quarry in 1894 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 26 August)
• Thomas Henry Cooper (born at Headington Quarry in 1896 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 31 August)
• Harriet Mary Cooper (born at Shotover Hill Place in 1898 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 29 May)
• Edith Laura Cooper (born at Shotover Hill Place in 1900 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 29 June)
• James Arthur Cooper (born at Shotover Hill Place in 1902 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 26 October)
• Elizabeth Rachel Cooper (born at Shotover Hill Place on 20 May 1904 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 28 August)
• Alice Cooper (born at Shotover Hill Place on 30 May 1907 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 29 September)
• Dorothy Cooper (born at Shotover Hill Place on 28 August 1910 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 30 April 1911).

Thomas’s father did bricklaying and general labouring work. The Coopers spent the whole of their married life in Headington Quarry. In about 1897 they moved to Shotover Hill Place, which was at the east end of Old Road (on the edge of Quarry in Holy Trinity ecclesiastical parish, but in the Forest Hill with Shotover and Stanton St John civil parish).

At the time of the 1901 census Thomas (4) was living at Shotover Hill Place with his father Frederick (33), his mother Susan (31), and his older brother Frederick (6) and his younger sisters Harriet (3) and Edith (1).

At the time of the 1911 census Thomas (14) was a builder's labourer, living in Shotover Hill Place with his father Frederick (43), who was described as a bricklayer, his mother Susan (41) and all seven of his siblings: Frederick (17), who was also a builder's labourer, and Harriet (13), Edith (11), James (8), Elizabeth (6), Alice (3), and Dorothy (seven months).

In the First World War Thomas Henry Cooper volunteered to serve in the 2nd/4th Battalion of the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (Service No. 200806) and rose to the rank of Lance Corporal. He was killed in action in France at the age of 22 on 31 March 1918.

He has no known grave, but is remembered on the Pozières Memorial (Panel 50) and on the stone plaque in the porch of Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry.

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Postscript

Thomas’s parents

At the time of the 1921 census Frederick (54) was working as a builder's labourer for Harris Building Contractors of Coventry and living at 23 Quarry Hollow (then called St Mary's Road) with his wife Susan (51) and four of their children: Edith (21) was a domestic servant at Cheney Cottage in Old Road; James (19) was a machinist for the cabinet maker Minty & Co in Cherwell Street; and Alice (14) and Dorothy (10) were still at school.

• Mrs Susan Cooper died at the age of 63 at Quarry Hollow and was buried in Holy Trinity churchyard on 11 November 1933.
• Frederick Walter Cooper was living on his own at 23 Quarry Hollow at the time of the 1939 Register, He died at the age of 77 at 29 Cumberland Road in east Oxford and was buried with his wife on 18 April 1945.

Some of Thomas’s siblings

• Harriet Mary Cooper (born 1898) was the domestic servant of the professional nurse Eliza Gosling at the time of the 1921 census and lived in her home at 8 St John Street.
• Edith Laura Cooper (born 1900) married George Herbert Stockford at Holy Trinity Church on 7 June 1930. She was then living at 23 Quarry Hollow, and he was a gardener living in the Marston Road lodge of Headington Hill Hall. Their birth of their daughter Mavis J. Stockford was registered in the Headington district in the fourth quarter of 1930.
• Elizabeth Rachel Cooper (born 1904) was a 17-year-old servant in 1911 living in the home at 4 Quarry Hollow of Mrs Edith Evetts, the Head of Headington Quarry Infant School, and her two daughters. In 1938 she married George H. Wilkins, and at the time of the 1939 Register they were living at Manor Farmhouse in Dunstan Road, where she worked as the cook and he was the butler.