71 



Private Wilfrid Omer Cooper. 



An Appreciation. 



All war is waste, we are reminded by a Minister of State, 

 and in no sense is this more true than in the destruction of young 

 lives of high intellectual promise. The rolls of honour of the 

 Universities and Public Schools are largely lists of men whom 

 the State can least spare, and whose deaths are a double loss — 

 a deprivation of manhood, and of what is no less important, 

 character and intellect. 



Private Wilfrid Omer Cooper joined a Bankers' Battalion 

 of the Royal Fusiliers early in the present year (191 6), 

 went to France in August, and was reported " missing " 

 with many others on September 26th, after an attack 

 on Thiepval. Much more than this, however, is to be said of W. 

 Omer Cooper. He was, though yet young, being in his 21st year, 

 a student of science who was rapidly approaching the dignity of 

 master in the narrow, circumscribed branch of research he had 

 made his own. He was a keen and accurate observer in zoology, 

 and, without the advantages of that training only to be acquired 

 in the lecture-rooms and laboratory of a University, had accom- 

 plished much work that was of a high order. His particular 

 study was the Isopods, a group of crustaceans, some land, most 

 marine, popularly best known as common wood-lice. He added 

 two new species to the British Fauna, Heterotanais oerstedi and 

 Clyponiscus hanseni, besides contributing a large number to the 

 already published Hampshire lists. As earnest of the considerable 

 volume of work which promised to issue from his pen, he con- 

 tributed several papers to zoological journals. Among these were 

 the following : — 



" Woodlice " in the Proceedings of the Bournemouth Natural 

 Science Society. 



■■' Notes on the Occurrence of Heterotanais oerstedi and other 

 Isopods in Christchurch Harbour," in collaboration with his 

 brother Joseph, in " The Zoologist " of January, 1916. 



"On Paragnathia" in "The Annals and Magazine of Natural 

 History " of July, 1916. 



On some Undescribed Features in the Structure of 

 Cyathura carinata" in " The Journal of Zoological Research " 

 of October, 19 16. 



As a recognition of his scientific attainments, and as an 

 encouragement to the great promise of his mind, he received, as 

 soon as he was eligible by age, the great honour of admittance 

 to the Linnean Society, being proposed by the* Rev. T. R. R. 

 Stebbing, F.R.S., one of our foremost zoologists. Such an 

 honour is given cautiously, and only to well-qualified persons, and 

 rarely if ever has it been conferred upon one so voung. 



Nor were his interests confined to science. In his versatility 

 he was a student of the local gipsy life, added two or three new 

 words to the Romany language, and was at one time a member of 

 the Gipsy and Folk Lore Club. Further, he was endowed with a 



