Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The group of three awarded to Quartermaster Sergeant J. C. Cooper, Royal Engineers, later a Yeoman of the Guard

China 1857-60, 2 clasps, Taku Forts 1860, Pekin 1860 (Sapper John Cooper, 10th C. Royal Engrs.); Abyssinia 1867, disc erased and suspension crudely re-fixed with solder; Army L.S. & G.C., V.R., small letter reverse (5813. Qr. Mr. Sergt. J. C. Cooper, R.E.) good fine, the last very fine £460-£550

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals to Yeomen of the Guard formed by Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Denny.

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John Collins Cooper was born in the Parish of St Margarets, Kent, on 1 January 1839, and enlisted into the Royal Engineers at Chatham on 5 November 1858, aged 23, a dyer by trade. He was present in the operations in China in August 1860, at the Taku Forts at the mouth of the Peiho River which was captured on 21 August, and in the subsequent operations against Pekin in October and November of the same year. He also took part in the Abyssinian campaign, 4 October 1867 to 19 April 1868. He received his L.S. & G.C. medal in 1875 with gratuity and was discharged on 28 June 1881, upon termination of his second period of limited engagement. He was appointed a Yeoman of the Guard on 1 September 1888, and died on 3 June 1897. An obituary notice reported:

‘Sudden death of a Yeoman of the Guard. Yesterday the body of John Collins Cooper, 56, a Yeoman of the Guard, who was to have taken part in the Queen’s Jubilee procession, was lying dead at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, The deceased, who was chief porter at the institution, was found lying dead by one of the officials in a room where he was at work.’

Sold with copied discharge papers and other research.