Rank: Private 55773 Regiment: 11th Labour Coy., Devonshire Regiment Died: 13/04/1917 Age: 39y Parish: Budleigh Salterton Local Memorials: Budleigh Salterton War Memorial, St Peter's Church War Memorial Other Memorial: Estaires Communal Cemetery & Extension [Google] PDF Download: HOOPER George Arthur
George was born in Exmouth to William James Hooper and Matilda (Collings) where he lived with his older brother and sister when his father had a grocer’s shop in The Strand. His mother died before his first birthday and his father moved to Credition and had a grocer’s shop in the High Street.
In 1901 George was a draper’s assistant in Bridport, Dorset where he met May Isabel Hamilton Thorburn. They married in 1904. In 1911 the family were living at 10 High Street, Budleigh Salterton where George was a grocer and provision dealer at Hoopers Grocery Store. Two daughters were born in Budleigh. George was a JP, Chairman of Budleigh Salterton Urban Council and Secretary of Lodge of Harmony No. 372.
He is also remembered in the Budleigh Men’s Club of which he was a member. He joined the 11th Labour Company of the Devonshire Regiment in March 1917, and died at 1st Australian Casualty Station in France of pneumonia just one month after joining up. He is remembered at the Estaires Communal Cemetery and Extension in northern France which, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records, was “adopted” by the borough of Plymouth.
Private Hooper’s family moved later to Paignton where May Isabel died in 1964 and his daughter in 2001.
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