Sir Richard Ashmole Cooper, 2nd Baronet (11 August 1874 – 5 March 1946) was a British

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

and a member of the

Cooper Baronets, of Shenstone Court The Cooper Baronetcy, of Shenstone Court in the parish of Shenstone in the County of Stafford, was created in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom on 20 December 1905 for the agriculturalist Richard Powell Cooper. The family business, in w ...

Biography

Cooper was educated at

Clifton College ''The spirit nourishes within'' , established = 160 years ago , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent boarding and day school , religion = Christian , president = , head_label = Head of College , head ...

, and succeeded to the

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

cy in 1913. He was Chairman of the chemical manufacturing firm Cooper, McDougall & Robertson. He served in the

Staffordshire Yeomanry (Queen's Own Royal Regiment) The Staffordshire Yeomanry (Queen's Own Royal Regiment) was a unit of the British Army. Raised in 1794 following Prime Minister William Pitt's order to raise volunteer bodies of men to defend Great Britain from foreign invasion, the Staffordshir ...

, where he was appointed a

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...

26 March 1902. He was elected as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...

January 1910 general election The January 1910 United Kingdom general election was held from 15 January to 10 February 1910. The government called the election in the midst of a constitutional crisis caused by the rejection of the People's Budget by the Conservative-dominat ...

, a seat he would hold until

1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic), Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éirean ...

. He founded the National Party with Sir

Henry Page Croft Henry Page Croft, 1st Baron Croft (22 June 1881 – 7 December 1947) was a decorated British soldier and Conservative Party politician. Early life and family He was born at Fanhams Hall in Ware, Hertfordshire, England. He was the son of Ric ...

in 1917 but stood at the 1918 election as an Independent Conservative. He was prominent, along with Croft, in the campaign against the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during t ...

in July 1922 for selling

honours Honour (British English) or honor (American English; see spelling differences) is the idea of a bond between an individual and a society as a quality of a person that is both of social teaching and of personal ethos, that manifests itself as a ...

. Between 1896 and 1911, Cooper resided at

Ashlyns Hall Ashlyns Hall is a country house at the edge of Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire, England. It is a Grade II* listed building. History The earliest local records of the Ashlyn name occur in a document dating from 1314 which describes a Reginal ''Assely ...

in Berkhamsted, leased from the Smith-Dorrien family. He married Alice Priestland on 18 April 1900: the couple had three sons, including the 3rd and 4th Baronets. Cooper died in 1946 and is interred in the family vault in Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted.

Family

Cooper married Alice Priestland in 1900.

References

* *
Catalogue
of Cooper's papers a

*Maurice Cowling, ''The Impact of Labour. 1920–1924'' (Cambridge University Press, 1971).

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Richard 1874 births People educated at Clifton College 1946 deaths Cooper, Richard Ashmole, 2nd Baronet Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1910 UK MPs 1910–1918 UK MPs 1918–1922 Staffordshire Yeomanry officers