RAF Pilot James Cooper - Rank Confirmation Possible, Please?

Hi, folks! I have a quest to complete for a friend, in identifying the rank and squadron of the Pilot in this photo (his Great Uncle), if anyone might be able to help, please?

We know the RAF Officer's name was James Cooper, which ought to help, we hoped...but as you'll imagine, there are a lot of James Coopers' listed on records.

However, we have a couple of clues: he survived WW2 in Bomber Command flying Lancasters toward the latter half of the war, and my friend remembers seeing a copy of a magazine with Cooper on the cover, pictured elbow-out of a Lancaster cockpit window, with a large Mouse nose-art painted right below him (might be the famous "Minnie The Moocher" of 61 Sqdn, but not certain). Cooper also refused to marry his sweetheart until WW2 was all over. This he did between September and December 1945...but very tragically, he was killed in a flight accident just two weeks after marrying! :-(

As far as records show, he was believed to have married a lady whose maiden name could have been Hoskins, but I can't trace any further forward than that; the wedding may have taken place in the Bristol area (according to Births, Marriages & Death records, if this is the same person) - and as you'll see from the photo scans, there's a Wedding Photographer's ink stamp on the rear, also in Bristol.
So far so good - but can anyone identify and rank this Officer, please?

 

Any chance of adding more info re his loss? I've had a look at the CWGC site and no loss details seem to be listed. I have also checked RAF losses from September 1945 to January 1946 with no luck. This could of course be a none service air accident.

 

Same here, I've also checked for a death registration for England and Wales with little success.

I have however found this photo and wondered if it is the one from the magazine, there are facial similarities.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/5a/1c/67/5a1c67c09021d963eb89b2d4e4ebadf4.jpg

 

Ditto re cwgc and Geoffs search engine

 

Thanks muchly, Gents - so quickly! Nicks - many thanks for that photo link; you're right - there is a good resemblance...and it's a 106 Sqdn Lanc'...

I'm afraid this information is all we have on him - not even his service number to request records, and we don't even know if he's got a middle name/initial for sure.

I've been doing a bit of Googling too, and came up with one James Cooper: "COOPER, James Leslie, PO - DFC - 430112 - 106 Sqn - RAFVR" - but I have a feeling that he isn't the right one, as I think this James L Cooper may be the one who married a lady named Richardson (also in the Bristol registry district), but in July - Sept 1946...though that could be a total red herring, for all we know! If anyone can shed any light on James L Cooper's career, it might prove or discount him completely?

All we know is that he died in a flying accident - apparently in service, but in peacetime - possibly a training/conversion/ferry flight or something?

Sorry for the lack of info', but this is why I've raised the question - to try to ascertain his history & rank, etc...

Thanks again for your swift help!

 

For what I can see, according to RAF Commands who published a full listing of DFC recipients, (who were not listed on the Gazette sheets/pages) he is the only James (L) Cooper on that list This would possibly mean that the other James Cooper is/should be in the gazetted papers.

The only death I could find in (England/Wales) for a Cooper in that period with a possible age range was a 36 year old whose death is recorded in Hammersmith in the Dec qtr 1945.

Cheers

Geoff

 

The pilot in the photo link in Nicks post is certainly not Guy Gibson.
If your man "James Cooper" is the one from 106sqdn, this is him listed in the ORB

 

Is there a chance your man could have died post 1947? If he was killed in service before the end of that year he would be commemorated with the CWGC. As he's not?

Just a thought

 

From Ancestry there is only 1 James Cooper marriage 1946 +/- 1 year

Name: James Cooper
Spouse Surname: Hoskins
Date of Registration: Oct-Nov-Dec 1945
Registration district: Bristol
Inferred County: Gloucestershire
Volume Number: 6a
Page Number: 493
Find Spouse: Find Spouse


Name: Gladys R Hoskins
Spouse Surname: Cooper
Date of Registration: Oct-Nov-Dec 1945
Registration district: Bristol
Inferred County: Gloucestershire
Volume Number: 6a
Page Number: 493

This info seems to fit with your info in post 1

So I am looking for death info late 1945 - 1947

 

Hi Barry L

Any chance of finding out his date of birth and perhaps where he was born in order to narrow down the possibilities, also as from the other posts did he have another name or initial???

Thanks
TD

 

As Peter suggests

He does not appear to be commemorated on CWGC.

Could I ask where the original source info came from

regards
Clive

 

Hi, chaps - sorry, but this is all we have by way of family knowledge; the only lady who knew him well enough is now senile and knows no more, sadly...

My own 'lead' for the marriage being in the Bristol district is that there's an inkstamp on the rar of the portrait - usually, such agencies don't travel or work far out of their own working regions, so it's my own fair deduction and reasoning that James Cooper married in that area, rather than a given fact; just simple estimation, that's all.

We have two James Cooper's here: the one (apparently without middle name) who married Gladys R Hoskins as detailed above, or P/O James L Cooper, of 106 Sqdn, who appears to have married a lady whose maiden name was Richardson in the 3rd quarter of 1946 (FreeBMD website - parish records) - the family story was that "their" James Cooper married "soon after the war", but was KIA in a flying accident just 2wks after the marriage...but they DO NOT know for sure if it WAS 1945/6, or a little later given the fog of time & memories...which opens a larger can of worms, eh? :wink:

Sorry for this vague quest, but this is literally all we have to go on...and every scrap if information or possibility is very welcome!

 

Name: James L Cooper
Spouse Surname: Richardson
Date of Registration: Jul-Aug-Sep 1946
Registration district: Bristol
Inferred County: Gloucestershire, Somerset
Volume Number: 7b
Page Number: 627
Find Spouse: Find Spouse


Name: Alleen J Richardson
Spouse Surname: Cooper
Date of Registration: Jul-Aug-Sep 1946
Registration district: Bristol
Inferred County: Gloucestershire, Somerset
Volume Number: 7b
Page Number: 627
Find Spouse: Find Spouse

NOTE: there is another marriage (same date span) for another James L Cooper but that is in Norfolk

TD

 

No commemoration with the CWGC up until end of December 1947 and I have just finished looking through the RAF losses for 1948 no Cooper. Of course I could have missed him Where do we go from here? If anywhere.

If this chap died in an aircraft accident it's looking more likely to be a civilian loss unless someone can come up with the goods.

 

Death Details of James Cooper (With or without an L) Cooper.

From Ancestry there are 2 that died in 1946:
1. James Leslie Cooper d 1946 - Malta
2. James Cooper b 1910 Lanarkshire, d 11.11 1946 NZ

As Peter says not sure where to go from here unless we can have something to help narrow the search

Also searched for deaths in 1947 and none of those have a wife named either Gladys or Alleen

TD

 

Barry,
See your post on RAFC, i think Simon has the answer, probably confirming J.L. Cooper (ex 106sqdn) as the person in question.

 

Many thanks in deed, chaps - rally well done with your great efforts! Very much appreciated, I can assure you all...

Alan, I'll go look right now - many thanks!

 

Hi Barry

Are sure about the 'Minnie the Moocher' tag - as there was another called 'Mickey the Moocher' of 61 Squadron, this aircraft had a Laurie Cooper as a navigator ??


Lanc called Mickey - No.50 & No.61 Squadrons Association
www.no-50-and-no-61-squadrons-association.co.uk/app/.../mickey.pdf

61 Squadron, Skellingthorpe ................................................................... page 31

Also from - http://www.lancaster-archive.com/lanc-noseart-m-o.htm

Minnie The Moocher - LL635
Service: A&AEE Boscombe Down, 514 Sqn JI-M
Fate: Scrapped damaged beyond repair (battle damage), 25 August 1944 - against Vincly


Mickey The Moocher - EE176
Service: 7 Sqn MG-?, 97 Sqn OF-N, OF-O, 61 Sqn QR-M, 1653 HCU H4-X, BOAC Training Facility
Fate: Scrapped, 26 May 1945, England



TD

edited to add details of 'Mickey the Moocher'

just checked your photo and it does indeed show 'Mickey'

 

Hi, TD - yes, it is a bit confusing, eh? I would guess that the "Mickey The Moocher" is now 'proven' to be a red herring, raised by accident by another web researcher acting for me; my apologies for throwing this "wobbler" into this equation and confusing the issue. Mind you, I'm confused about the link to the 106 Sqdn Lanc bearing the Admiral Prune tag & nose-art - that WAS Guy Gibson's aircraft (even if that isn't him in the photo), but maybe he handed it over to Cooper...? Not important, just a minor point, that's all...

The Cooper who died in NZ was a Kiwi citizen who served in the RAF but died in his home land, apparently (no other details found as yet), and there is no trace of the other Cooper who married Miss Hoskins on any BMD database that I can access, so that leads me to conclude that he ISN'T the one we're looking for, either...

So, from the information everyone has gathered and posted so far (and also on the RAF Command Forum), it would seem almost certain that we are talking about P/O James Leslie Cooper, who married in either late july or early August 1946, then tragically perished in the BOAC Dakota G-AGHT crash at Luqa, Malta on August 14th 1946, when one of the Dak's engines cut out from fuel starvation (wrong tank selected, the report states) and the Pilot (Cooper) attempted an immediate emergency landing, but the aircraft crashed hard; his crew escaped, but he perished... What a tragic waste...
The dates of the marriage and his untimely death are too much of a coincidence for there to be two or more Coopers suffering the same fate, so I'm going to accept that collectively, you've found the right one. I'll collate all this information and report back, with print-outs of all the items you've generously linked here.

I thank you all for your very quick and intense support and efforts, Gents - his Great Nephew will be delighted to finally know the whole story...