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At the laying of the foundation stone for the new Budleigh Salterton Cottage Hospital on the 8th March 1888 a number of prominent members of the local community were present.  These included General Goodwyn (1), Major Leicester (2), Colonel Carlyon (3), Major Lee (4), and Captain Astley Cooper.  The latter would appear to be Albert Beauchamp Astley Cooper who was living at “Temple Hill” in East Budleigh and was a retired Captain in the Royal Artillery. 

There is a slight problem because there was a second Astley Cooper who had newly arrived in the area having had a career as a surgeon in the navy where he attained the rank of Captain.  He had recently retired at his own request and had been given the rank of Deputy Inspector General of Hospitals and Fleets.  He was living in Littleham but I think it more likely that the worthies at the stone laying would all have been members of the East Budleigh Parish.  However for completeness I have included the naval CV at the end of this article.  I have been unable to find a link between the two families.  

Albert Beauchamp Astley Cooper was born in Hemel Hempstead in August 1841 the seventh child of Sir Astley Paston Cooper 2nd Bart and Elizabeth Harriet Rickford (5).  Sir Astley had inherited the title from his uncle the famous anatomist, and surgeon to the King, Sir Astley Paston Cooper who had died childless in 1841.   

Albert joined the Royal Artillery as a Lieutenant in 1864 and was promoted to Captain in 1877.  He married Eva Cornelia O'Reilly in 1879.  Also in January 1879 he had become the Adjutant of the 1st Administrative Brigade Fifeshire Artillery Volunteers (6) and they were stationed in St. Andrews.  The couple were still in St. Andrews at the time of the 1881 census in Scotland and he retired from the Royal Artillery in September 1881.   

They moved initially to Littleham and then to East Budleigh and leased Temple Hill from the Rolle Estate in the mid 1880’s.  Albert held the office of Justice of the Peace (J.P.) for Devon.  They were still in East Budleigh in 1891 but must have left around the turn of the century as the parents and the two daughters were in lodgings in London in 1901 and by 1911 they were all living in Bury St. Edmunds.  The family finally moved to Surrey where Eva died in 1917 and Albert in 1921 (7).  He is buried in Richmond Cemetery. 

Albert and Eva had three children, Olive Sylvia Beauchamp Cooper born in St. Andrews circa 1881, Geoffrey Beauchamp Astley Cooper born 1884 in Littleham, and Rosalind Beauchamp Cooper born in East Budleigh in late 1885.  Both of the girls died within a month of each other in 1959 in north Surrey (7).   

Geoffrey went to Blundell’s School and joined the Indian Army as a Lieutenant in 1906 (8); he served as Captain and Major in WW1 and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.  He was invested as an Officer, Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.).  He married twice and had three children with his second wife Louisa White, namely Major Gerald Nigel Astley Cooper, Sub-lieutenant Geoffrey Desmond Cooper killed in 1940, and Rosemary Ann Cooper (5).  He died in March 1948 in Bury St. Edmunds. 

(1)www.ova.org.uk/article/goodwyn-general-julius-1824-1890-Budleigh-Salterton-C19 

(2)www.ova.org.uk/article/leicester-william-frederick-1831-1906-Budleigh-Salterton-C19  

(3)OVApedia entry

(4)www.ova.org.uk/article/lee-major-george-budleigh-salterton-c19

(5)www.thepeerage.com/p25199.htm#i251984

(6)London Gazette

(7)www.FreeBMD.org

(8)1911 Army List 

The other Astley Cooper who lived in Littleham was born in Plymouth and entered the medical profession becoming a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons and a Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries.  The Royal Navy List states that he joined the navy as a Surgeon in 1857.  

He served with the Royal Marine Brigade from 1857-1860 during part of the suppression of the Taiping Rebellion in China.  He was present at the blockade of the Canton River and the capture of Canton plus subsequent operations.  In 1860 he was the principal Medical Officer in Shanghai during the repulse of two attacks on the city by the Taiping rebel army in August.  He was landed near Shatow during the Northern China campaign for the attacks on, and capture of, three walled villages.  He received the China Medal and Canton Clasp (9).  After China he joined HMS Cumberland in 1861 as an assistant surgeon.  

He became a Staff Surgeon in April 1868 and was in the Pacific on HMS Fawn at the time of the 1871 census.  He was promoted to Fleet Surgeon in November 1878 and in 1881 he was stationed in Plymouth at HMS Cambridge, a gunnery school on a series of hulks anchored in the Hamoaze and other shore based establishments.  He also had a house in East Stonehouse where his wife Louisa (aged 40, born Tullamore, Ireland) was living with their son William, aged 10 (born in Plymouth).  

Later in 1882 he was Fleet Surgeon on HMS Minotaur which was the flagship of Vice-Admiral Dowell (commander of the Channel Squadron).  This ship was dispatched to Egypt arriving a day too late to participate in the only battleship combat action of that era, the bombardment of Alexandria during the second Anglo-Egyptian War.

By 1901 he and Louisa were living at “Govena” in Littleham.  He died in 1910 and his wife in 1915, both in Plymouth. 

(9)British Medical Journal April 1889 

Compiled and Researched by Roger Lendon © 2010

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