COOPER, George Henry

George Henry Cooper was one of ten children of Jesse Cooper and his wife Kate, nee Haggarty. He was a carpenter by trade, living in Heidelberg when he enlisted on 31 August, 1916. He married his first wife, Ruby Mertle Davis in 1917, and it is her address at 101 George St., East Melbourne, which gives hi his claim on East Melbourne. The couple were to divorce in 1921, with no children, and he married again in 1923 to Stella Hocking. They had one child, Keith Raymond Cooper. George Cooper's younger brother, Arthur, also enlisted and was placed in the 2 FAB as a driver. Both were to return from the war.

George Cooper was trained as a gunner following his enlistment and placed in the 1-8 Reinforcements of the 8 Field Artillery Brigade, part of the Third Division under the command of General Grimwade. The Reinforcements left Melbourne on 14 February, 1917, on RMS Osterley, landing in England and then being transferred to the Western Front where they joined their unit. George Cooper, however, had been diagnosed on board ship with VD and was not discharged from medical care until 37 days later,  30 March. He left for France on 8 April, 1917, from Heytesbury and was attached to the 1 Australian Division Ammunition Column on 21 April. 

The Third Brigade had been deployed to France on 31st December, 1916, and had its first major action in June 1917 at Messines, where their task was to shell 446 targets before the day of the assault on the enemy forces. George Cooper would have taken part in this battle. Following Messines, they were deployed to Broodeseinde (4 October, 1917). Here the weather played a major part, with the gunnery positions getting bogged down in mud. They were forced to retreat to solid ground, but this meant the artillery's effectiveness was severely reduced, so the attack was a failure. Another failure on 12 August brought the Australian effort to an end. The next major battle was Amiens, where General Grimwade's tactics had marked success. 

George Cooper was taken on strength with the Australian Command Depot from the 2nd Australian Artilllery later in 1917 and appeared to have stayed with them for the duration of the war. With the armisitice declared on 11 November, 1918, their job was finished, though the task remained of cleaning up the battlefields and sending the troops back to Australia. George Cooper was given leave in London from 19 April 0 17 July, 1919, and finally returned to Australia on board the Euripides, leaving England on 21/10/ 1919. He was finally discharged from the army on 27 November that year.

At the end of  1919, George Cooper was back living in Burgundy Street, Heidelberg, and working as a carpenter. Following his divorce from Ruby and  marriage to Stella, the couple moved to 59 Byron St., Footscray, where they lived from 1924-1936. They then moved to 103 Cope St., Heidelberg, where George worked as a wagon builder and later a builder. He died on 3 December, 1959.