William Cooper (chemical Manufacturer)
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William Cooper (26 December 1813 – 20 May 1885) was a British veterinary surgeon, agriculturalist and
industrialist A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...
who specialised in the manufacture of agricultural
insecticide Insecticides are substances used to kill insects. They include ovicides and larvicides used against insect eggs and larvae, respectively. Insecticides are used in agriculture, medicine, industry and by consumers. Insecticides are claimed to b ...
s for
livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...
. He is credited with developing the first successful sheep dip, Cooper's Dip, in 1852.


Early life and career

Cooper was born in
Clunbury Clunbury is a village and civil parish in south Shropshire, England. It is near to the small town of Clun and the villages of Clunton, Purslow and Aston on Clun. In the village is the Norman Church of St Swithin and a Church of England primar ...
,
Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...
. He trained as a veterinary surgeon and by the 1843 he had moved to set up a practice in
Berkhamsted Berkhamsted ( ) is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the Bulbourne valley, north-west of London. The town is a civil parish with a town council within the borough of Dacorum which is based in the neighbouring large new town ...
,
Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...
. Legend has it that he arrived in town with nothing but a bag with containing the tools of his trade. In 1849, Cooper became one of the first veterinary surgeons to qualify from the
Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) is the regulatory body for veterinary surgeons in the United Kingdom, established in 1844 by royal charter. It is responsible for monitoring the educational, ethical and clinical standards of the v ...
. In the 1851 census he is recorded as a resident of the High Street in Berkhamstead. He later moved to a house on the High Street called ''The Poplars''; this house was later the birthplace of the actor
Sir Michael Hordern Sir Michael Murray Hordern CBE (3 October 19112 May 1995)Morley, Sheridan"Hordern, Michael Murray (1911–1995)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, online edition, May 2009, accessed 22 July 2015 was a ...
in 1911. As a veterinary surgeon he was frequently confronted by the horrendous condition of farm animals caused by various parasitic insects, in particular a skin disease which afflicted sheep known as
sheep scab ''Psoroptes'' is a genus of mites, including the agents that cause psoroptic mange. Psoroptic mange ''Psoroptes'' mites are responsible for causing psoroptic mange in various animals, leading to economic losses among farmers of cattle, sheep ...
- at the time treated very ineffectually by only ointments composed of
tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
stalk and brimstone emulsified in
goose fat In cooking and gastronomy, goose is the meat of several species of bird in the family Anatidae. The goose is in the biological family of birds including ducks, and swans, known as the family of Anatidae. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution. ...
. Cooper began to conduct his own experiments with preparations of
arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, but ...
and
sulphur Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...
. By 1852 his experiments were conclusive enough for him to market the first truly effective sheep dip, known as "Cooper's dip". The product was sold in a powdered form which was easily transportable.


Cooper & Nephews

Cooper set up his own manufacturing firm in Berkhamsted, and the chemical works became a major employer in the town. From 1852 throughout the remainder of the 19th century the Berkhamstead based business expanded at considerable speed, the newly built factory taking every advantage of the new mechanical innovations of the day. In the 1860s the horses powered mills were replace with steam powered machinery. The factory had its own printing press producing labels of a complicated design in order to prevent the sheep dip being faked by the unscrupulous. William Cooper formed a business partnership with his two nephews, Henry Herbert Cooper and
Richard Powell Cooper Sir Richard Powell Cooper, 1st Baronet (21 September 1847 – 30 July 1913) was a British industrial entrepreneur. He was a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and inherited the family business, an agricultural chemical manufactur ...
, and the firm took on the name Cooper & Nephews. In 1885 William Cooper died, leaving the business to his nephews; Henry died in 1891, and his brother Richard Cooper became the sole proprietor of the business. From 1885 to 1889, Richard began a large-scale expansion of the company. A shrewd business man, he made investments in land world wide and by 1913 owned around the globe and owned mines in New Zealand,
Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...
, and
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
. For services to Agriculture, Richard was created a
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 ...
by
King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...
in 1905, becoming the first baronet in the newly created Cooper Baronetcy of Shenstone Court. The Coopers firm. later known as Cooper, McDougall & Robertson, continued to trade for many years until it was bought in 1973 by the
pharmaceuticals A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and rel ...
company Wellcome. The Berkhamsted chemical works eventually closed down and most of the buildings have since been demolished. Today, a veterinary company continues to operate in Australia under the Coopers Animal Health brand. The Cooper family grave is located in the Cemetery of St Peter's Church on Rectory Lane, Berkhamsted. A stained glass window designed by the glazier
Nathaniel Westlake Nathaniel Hubert John Westlake FSA (1833–1921) was a 19th-century British artist specialising in stained glass. Career Nathaniel Westlake was born in Romsey in 1833. He began to design for the firm of Lavers & Barraud, Ecclesiastical Design ...
was installed in the north aisle of St Peter's Church in 1885 in memory of William Cooper.


References


External links


Berkhamsted: William Cooper
- Hertfordshire Genealogy
The Cooper Family
- Friends of St Peter's Berkhamsted {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, William Businesspeople from Shropshire 1813 births 1885 deaths Businesspeople in agriculture 19th-century British chemists Veterinary scientists English veterinarians People from Berkhamsted