Duncan Elphinstone Cooper (c. 1813 – 22 November 1904) was an Indian-born Australian

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who played for

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

. He was born in Bengal, India and died in

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddi ...

. He was the son of Major General George Cooper (1777–1847) and his first wife Jane née Munn (1778–1823). In 1841 Cooper travelled from London to Australia with George and Harry Thompson, brothers who were to become his partners as squatters and sheep farmers near Fiery Creek, Raglan. In his spare time Duncan painted landscapes of the surrounding area which were later gathered together and published as ''The Challicum Sketch Book''. In 1849 he occupied the Warrapinjoe run, adjacent to the Thomson brothers' run, with an extent of 14,052 acres. Cooper made a single first-class appearance for the Victorian cricket team, during the 1850–51 season, against

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

. This match was the first ever first-class cricket match in Australia. Cooper opened the batting, and thus faced the first ball in Australian first-class cricket. He scored four runs in the first innings, and a

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form t ...

in the second. In 1854 Cooper left Australia and returned to London. In 1875 he presented 26 volumes of the work of the Bewick brothers to the

Melbourne Public Library State Library Victoria (SLV) is the state library of Victoria, Australia. Located in Melbourne, it was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in the ...

. He lived in London, a bachelor, until his death at the age of 90.

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Duncan Cooper
at Cricket Archive 1813 births 1904 deaths Australian pastoralists Australian cricketers Victoria cricketers Melbourne Cricket Club cricketers Australian landscape painters 19th-century Australian businesspeople {{Australia-cricket-bio-1810s-stub