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ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE
Obituaries
Two great St Edward’s men who did much
to shape the School as we know it today.
Graham Cooper OSE
By Malcolm Oxley, former Second Master and author of
A New History of St Edward’s School, Oxford, 1863 – 2013
He was a year ahead of Guy Gibson whom he
knew well. He left in 1937 as Senior Prefect
and Head of House. By then Henry Kendall
had transformed the old ‘sets’ into unified
boarding houses and Graham was head of
his House serving under Ken Menzies and
Gerry Segar. He also captained the XV and
the athletics and hockey teams. He figured
prominently in other school activities like
debating where, in an atmosphere of very
traditional attitudes among the young, he
displayed a strikingly liberal stance. He went
on to Trinity College, Oxford, where, in 1940,
he took his BA and a rugby Blue. He remained
very loyal to his college and was made an
Honorary Fellow in 1983.
After war service as a Major in the
Westminster Dragoons he returned to join
and later lead the family firm of Cooper’s,
successful builders’ merchants in Oxford. He
was soon a prominent figure in the Oxford
business world and always played a full part
in civic life serving as Vice Chairman of the
Oxford Regional Health Authority and as a
Trustee and Vice Chairman of the Oxford
Preservation Trust. He was a Justice of the
Peace for Abingdon.
In 1947, such was the esteem in which
he was already held by Warden Kendall and
the Governors that he was invited to join
their number. He must have been one of
the youngest Governors ever and certainly
he became far and away the longest serving.
His role as a business man based locally
made him an excellent Governor but it was
his judgement and unswerving loyalty to his
old School which made him unique, a loyalty
which extended to his educating his own
children at St Edward’s. Serving six Wardens
he built up a range of experience which made
him a major figure in the shaping of school
policies and strategies for more than 50 years.
His governance was not to act as a brake on
change or as a guardian of the past. He helped
to preside over the very considerable changes
which the wardenships of Fisher, Bradley,
Phillips and the two Christies witnessed, years
of growth, prosperity and a considerable
raising of standards all round. The 2013 Roll
rightly summarises as follows: ‘He has been
an important figure in the School’s progress
over the second half of the 20th century,
and a frequent benefactor.’ His generosity
was indeed considerable both in outward
benefactions and behind the scenes assistance
for a host of projects large and small. He will
always be remembered as a very considerable
figure in the history of St Edward’s.
Graham Cooper died on 18th February 2016
aged 98.
St Edward’s has enjoyed and benefitted from
a host of able Governors during its 150
year history. Only one of these has a whole
quadrangle named after him. In 1988, when
the space surrounded by the new Art, Design
and Mathematics buildings was created,
it was dubbed the Cooper Quadrangle
commemorating both the generosity and the
sagacity of Graham Cooper, a Governor from
1947-93 and Chairman from 1973-85.
Graham, who was born in 1917, joined
the School in the Michaelmas Term of 1931
at the same time as Sir John Moreton who, in
1980, would join him on the Governing Body.
Graham Cooper, Captain of the 1936 1st XV
A Governors’ meeting, 1978. Geoffrey Palau sits at the head of the table; Graham Cooper is second on his right