Stephen was born in April 1898 to James and Mary Ann Cecelia Cooper, and was the youngest of seven siblings although the 1911 census shows that a further two children had unfortunately died.
Stephen's medal card record shows that he first arrived overseas on 7th October 1915, and that he was killed in action (K. in A).
Stephen’s father James was a coal miner, and his two elder brothers Alfred (15) and James (14) were recorded as ‘Colliery below pony driver’ on the census. The family were living at 22 Doncaster Rd, Denaby. In 1911, the family have moved to 32 Annerley Street, and eldest brother Alfred (now 25) has left home. James however is still at home and is working as a ‘Miner Driver’, whilst James is still a Miner. By this time Henry, Stephen’s elder brother by 2 years is also working as a ‘Miner Driver’, although Stephen himself is still a schoolboy.
Stephen was only 18 in mid July 1916 when he died during the Somme campaign. He was a Private in the Northumberland Fusiliers and is commemorated on Thiepval Memorial to the Missing; he has no known grave.
Stephen Cooper
The Conisbrough and Denaby 100 Project
We visited Stephen's inscription on the Thiepval Memorial and laid his card at Easter, 2015.
Click for larger image
The newspaper report of his death states that Stephen was working his machine gun when he was killed by a German shell; his friends buried him where he fell, which means that either his grave was lost during the next 2 years of his death, or he is laid in one of the many ‘Soldier of the Great War’ graves. As his friends would have known who he was, and marked his grave, the former is more likely.
He was arrived in France on 7th October 1915, having enlisted at Pontefract in April and was thus awarded the Victory, British and 1915 Star medals.