George Cooper

Bank: National Provincial Bank of England

Place of work: Cheltenham Montpellier branch

Died: 29 January 1916

George Stanley Cooper was born on 12 November 1895, the son of a customs officer. He was educated at Bristol Cathedral School.

In August 1912, when Cooper was 16 years old, he went to work for National Provincial Bank of England as apprentice at its Cheltenham Montpellier branch. In June 1915, as he neared the end of his three-year term of apprenticeship, his manager remarked to head office that 'his application as regards his work is somewhat interfered with by his anxiety to enlist.'

Soon afterwards, Cooper did indeed enlist, joining the 26th (Bankers') Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers as a Private. He died of meningitis in hospital in Aldershot on 29 January 1916. He was 20 years old.