Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Sergeant R. D. Cooper, Royal Horse Artillery, late Royal Field Artillery and Punjab Police

1914 Star (11584 Cpl. R. D. Cooper. R.F.A.); British War and Victory Medals (11584 Sjt. R. D. Cooper. R.A.); Delhi Durbar 1911, silver (Sergt. R. D. Cooper. Punjab Police); Army L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 1st issue (11584 Sjt. R. D. Cooper. R.H.A.) traces of lacquer to Delhi Durbar and LSGC medals, light contact marks, generally very fine (5) £240-£280

Richard Dunne Cooper was born in Bangalore, India, on 5 July 1887, the son of Pioneer Sergeant Thomas Cooper of the Oxfordshire Light Infantry. He attested at Aldershot for the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 14 July 1900, serving in South Africa from 1903 to 1908, and with No.3 Ammunition Column, Royal Field Artillery, at Ambala, India, from 1908 until 1912. Recorded in 1911 as Bombardier, he was awarded the Delhi Durbar medal for service with the Punjab Police whilst afforded the local rank of Police Sergeant.

Returned briefly to Aldershot in 1912, Cooper mobilised with 83rd Battery, 11th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, on 31 August 1914. Arriving in Marseilles on 7 November 1914 with the Lahore Division of the Indian Corps, he moved up to Orleans, Abbeville, and then Busnes in freezing cold conditions. The War Diary entries at around this time show that conditions were little short of appalling in the southern Ypres sector. Promoted Sergeant, Cooper moved with his Battery to billets at Riel du Vinage from 1 to 5 March 1915, before marching to a position near Croix Barbee on 6 March 1915. Just a few days later he received a shell wound to the left arm, likely retaliation for the pounding of German machine gunners on the edge of Bois du Biez. He was evacuated soon thereafter, alongside six other men wounded in the same incident.

Suitably recovered in England, Cooper spent the remainder of the war at Weedon Depot in Northamptonshire which housed a Troop of Artillery and the horses required to pull the guns. Designated an Army Equestrian School in 1922, Cooper took the opportunity to qualify rough rider before discharge on 13 January 1925. Building upon his short time with the Punjab Police, he is recorded in 1939 as living at Thurrock, Essex, and serving as a Sergeant in the War Office Constabulary.

Sold with an attractive painted portrait photograph of the recipient astride his mount, circa 1913, in full dress R.F.A. uniform wearing his Delhi Durbar medal on his tunic, with the insignia of a gun layer above his Corporal’s stripes; and copied research.