#13670, John Dawson COOPER

John married firstly Sheilah Muriel Pinney Longmire in Ferndown, Dorset in 1947 and secondly Elizabeth Courtnay Donaldson in Inverell, NSW in 2006.

After leaving university John was commissioned sub-lieutenant (E) RNVR (1941) and served a one year apprenticeship with J I Thornycroft in Southampton working in all departments and the drawing office.  The company later became Vosper Thornycroft and later still part of BAE Systems.

(The Thornycroft business was founded by John Isaac Thornycroft who at the age of 16 showed an aptitude for building boats.  In 1862 he built Nautilus which was the first steam-powered boat fast enough to keep up with the Oxford & Cambridge boat race.  His father was so impressed he bought him a piece of land alongside The Thames and that was the start of the business.)

In 1942 John joined HMS Kent, obtaining his Engine Room Watchkeeping Certificate and subsequently took charge of the boiler rooms.  The following year he joined HMS Diomede as senior watchkeeper with responsibility for damage control, refrigeration, capstans and auxiliary machinery, in charge of 60 stokers.

HMS Idefatigable (148,000 SHP) was launched 8th December 1942 at John Brown & Co's yard on Clydebank.  John Dawson joined the fitting out team in charge of boiler rooms and stayed with her for her first year in commission and in February 1944 was promoted Lieutenant (E) RN.  Indefatigable's first assignment was to provide air cover for RMS Queen Elizabeth bringing US troops to Britain.  On return she embarked Supermarine Seafires of 887 Squadron and Barracudas of 820 Squadron.  She was immediately assigned to attack Tirpitz and went on to successful attacks in Norway.  She fought on in a number of engagements, including another attack on Tirpitz ending up in Australia  1945 found John in Sydney, NSW, at the RN Repair Base, in charge of dockyard repair work on aircraft carriers, destroyers and cruisers.  Following the award of the Distinguished Service Cross (for gallantry in the face of the enemy) he re-joined HMS Indefatigable. 

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers made him a Graduate member on 15th November 1946.  On the 1st May 1948 John was appointed Managing Director of Pike Bros, Fayle & Co Ltd at a salary of £6000 per annum.  The company had been formed at about the time he joined by the merger of Pike Bros (Wareham) Ltd and B Fayle & Co Ltd.  Both companies have an interesting history but it is too big a subject to be addressed here.  Pike Bros operated the Furzebrook Tramway and B Fayle & Co Ltd operated a tramway from their Norden pits.  Both companies were extracting china clay and running it down to Poole Harbour for shipping to their customers.  No further information is available about the company or its managing director.  His business life seems to have ended with the receipt of some £500 from the sale of a lime works by The Basing Lime Co. Ltd.

By 2006 we find him in Australia (he had been in Sydney during his naval career) where he remarried and saw out his days until 2014.