Percy George Broomhead Cooper

Percy enlisted in September 1914 at Sheffield. He went out to France in Janaury 1915 and was killed in action on 5th may 1915. His body was never recovered or identified and his name is commemorated on the Menin Gate, Ypres, Belgium. Sergeant Percy Cooper Worksop Guardian 4 June 1915 Official news has just been received confirming the sad tidings that Sergt. Percy Cooper, Harworth, was killed in action on May 5th. He was the only son of the late Mr Richard Cooper and Mrs Cooper, The Glen, Harworth. Educated at Oldcoates and Harworth Schools he afterwards went to St Cuthberts College, Worksop. He then served his time as premium apprentice at the Plant, Doncaster after which he travelled to Canada and Australia, then to India and Egypt, where after a holiday, he was to have returned last August but owing to a serious operation for appendicitis he was detained. The war then taking on a more serious aspect, he felt it his duty to join the forces and he enlisted in the East Yorkshire Regiment in September, and in the following January, he sailed for Flanders, where he was constantly in the trenches. The following letter was received by his sorrowing relatives from a chum at the front; “It is with much regret that I have to inform you that your son, Sergt P Cooper, was killed in action on 5th May during the terrible fighting we have been through the last three weeks. He was one of the first to volunteer for anything risky. I was his chum, When he was with us on the Machine Gun Section here, he earned the respect of his comrades for his coolness. It was for good work in the Gun Section that his quick promotion came to him and as you no doubt are aware, he would have been made a commissioned officer within a very short time, it was only a question of weeks. We were looking forward to the time when he would be in charge of our Gun Section, but it was not to be. He is buried with other lads of his Platoon behind the trenches. In conclusion, let me tender the deepest sympathy of the Machine Gun Section and accept the same from your truly, A. Beules.” A letter also received from his Captain, who was wounded on the same day, saying how very sorry he was to lose him, and that he, as his Company Commander, had the pleasure of recommending him for a commission.

Nottinghamshire Archives (ref PR 8446): Harworth Register of Burials: ‘Members of the Parish of Harworth who died in the Great War of 1914-1918 and are buried abroad’: Cooper Percy George Broomhead (Harworth), Sergeant East Yorks. 5 May 1915, age 33, killed in action on the Western Front. Research by Colin Dannatt