Lance Corporal John Cooper
- Rank
- Lance Corporal
- Service number
- 2484
- Decorations
- Distinguished Conduct Medal
- Unit
- 51 Battalion
- Cause of death
- Killed in Action
- Place of death
- Villers Bretonneux, France
- Date of death
- 25 April 1918
- Age
- 31
- Plaque number
- M485A
- Co-located plaques
- M485 - PTE Morris White
- Dedicated by
- Grandchildren on 20 May 2017
- More information
Biography presented during plaque dedication:
Lance Corporal John Cooper DCM was born in Carlton, Melbourne in December 1886 to John and Elizabeth Cooper.
He attended Carlton state school. It is not known if he had brothers and sisters or when he moved to Western Australia,
He married Ada Hodgkinson in Perth in 1906 and they had four children.
John worked as a sleeper-hewer on the Perth to Kalgoorlie rail line before enlisting.
He joined the Australian Imperial Force in Kalgoorlie on 28 May 1915, aged 28 years. He was allotted to 7 Reinforcement of 11 Battalion and then trained at Blackboy Hill Military Camp.
The unit left Fremantle aboard HMAT Karoola in June 1915 for Egypt. After more training there with 7 Reinforcements, he embarked for the Dardanelles in July 1915.
He fell ill with influenza and transferred to HMHS Glenart Castle and re-joined his unit in Lemnos in November 1915.
With the reorganisation of the Australian Imperial Force, John was posted to 51 Battalion and served with them throughout France and Belgium.
At Zonnebeke Ridge near Ypres he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty.
He took command of his platoon during an attack when all the NCO's (non-commissioned officer) had become casualties and led them successfully to the objective. He remained in charge during the consolidation, inspiring his men by his fearless conduct under heavy shell and machine gun fire. His initiative and example was of conspicuous merit.
In April 1918, the battalion occupied the Cachy switch trench south of Villers-Bretonneux. On 24-25 April, a company advanced on machine guns to their front with the barbed wire entanglement and intensive machine gun fire inflicting many casualties.
Lance Corporal John Cooper, service number 2484 of 51 Battalion, was killed in action to the south of Villers-Bretonneux on 25 April 1918.
He was 31 years of age and is interred at Adelaide Cemetery, Villers-Bretonneux, France.
His age at death is incorrectly recorded as 33 elsewhere.