Cooper, John James

Cook John James Cooper – SS Umgeni – Merchant Navy

John James Cooper was born in London England in 1867 to James and Mary Ann Cooper. He was educated in London and after leaving school he took up work with the merchant navy. He later travelled to Western Australia and went to the Goldfields to try his luck. In 1896 he married Bridget Donnelly in Southern Cross and after living for a time in the Goldfields they took up residence in East Fremantle.

At the outbreak of the Great War John was too old for service in the Australian Imperial Force but he still wanted to do his bit and so he enlisted into the Merchant Navy Service. He was assigned the rank of Troop Cook and assigned to the ship SS Umgeni.

At the outbreak of the First World War the Umgeni was taken over by the Admiralty for service as a supply ship. On November 7th 1917, she left the Clyde in convoy for Lagos. Two days later the convoy ran into foul weather and became dispersed. The Umgeni was never seen again, but bodies and wreckage from her were washed up along the west coast of Ireland.

John James Cooper’s body was never recovered and he is therefore commemorated on the Mercantile Marine Memorial at Tower Hill London.