THE COPP FAMILY, Part 2: Walter John Copp
Title
THE COPP FAMILY, Part 2: Walter John Copp
Subject
Description
Above are five photographs of Walter John Copp, depicting five aspects of his life--a tailor, husband and father, soldier, cyclist and a friend to many. There could be more, depicting Mr. Copp as a musician, sportsman, woodcarver, painter, collector, bellringer, naturalist, astronomer, school governor, for at least a time a teetotaler and to a few, perhaps a tad ostentatious.
And Walter Copp was usually very well-dressed. This is especially apparent in the first photograph taken in 1912, when Walter would be about 22-years-old. On the 1911 Census, aged 21, he was already listed as a practising tailor. There are other professional photographs, taken about the same time, of Walter Copp wearing distinctive and rather dashing outfits (1). If these clothes were made by himself-- which those who knew Mr. Copp are certain they were--the photographs may have been taken to advertise his abilities, with himself being his own best model.
While his outfit in the top photograph is rather detailed and elegant (there are three jewelled accessories in the photograph), Walter Copp also created trousers and corduroy britches suitable for an Exmoor farmer (2). His own family history would have made him cognoscent with both aspects of Somerset life.
Walter's father, John, was born in 1845 and baptised at the All Saint's Church in Wootton Courtenay on the 13th of July as John Gould, the son of Thomas and Ann (nee Burnell) Gould, who had married at All Saint's on the 4th of May 1845 (3). Thomas Gould was born in 1820 to 19-year-old Sarah Gould, a single mother who had her child baptised at St. John the Baptist Church in Carhampton, where the record identified her baby as "base-born" (4).
The father of Thomas was considered to be Richard Taylor Copp, born the 21st of February 1797 in Carhampton, the son of John Frank Copp. The Copp family had been in this area, seemingly since the 1500's, with John Frank Copp being a member of at least the eighth Copp generation that had lived variously in Minehead, Wootton Courtenay, Timberscombe and Carhampton (5). By 1784, Harding Payne Copp, the older brother of John-Frank Copp, and his extended family were living at and farming Ranscombe, a large and successful property on the eastern side of Wootton Courtenay (6).
At SP-290 is a c. 1847 photograph of the two-year-old John Gould (the father of Walter John Copp) sitting on the knee of an elderly gentleman, identified as the boy's grandfather and is likely John Frank Copp, suggesting the Copp family at least acknowledged the child of Richard Taylor Copp (7), although John and his immediate family were certainly not among the Copps gathered at Ranscombe. Yet on the 1861 Census, John Gould, now 15-years-old, was going by the name of "John Copp". At the same time his father, Thomas, continued working as a farm labourer, moving his wife and their eight younger children from one farm job to another (8). In 1864, the newly renamed John Copp enlisted with the Plymouth Division of the Royal Marines Light Division, where he served the next twenty-one years (9). He finished his service in 1885, shortly before the death of his father (10), who by the 1871 Census had also changed his surname to Thomas Copp (as had his wife and the other children), although still working as a farm labourer until his death. On the 7th of April 1888, 42-year-old John Copp married 25-year-old Jane Baker and on the 9th of May 1889, their son, Walter John Copp, was born (11). By the 1901 Census, John Copp and family had moved into the house called Pools, part of the Wootton Courtenay Estate and fronting the main street of Wootton Courtenay (later renamed Rose Cottage), where Mr. Copp lived until his passing in 1919 (12)--clearly with no need to travel from farm to farm, as his father, Thomas, had done.
Walter was the eldest of three more children born to John and Jane Copp, being Beatrice Elizabeth ("Beaty"), born in October 1891 (13), Arthur Willie, born June 1897 (14) and Ettie ("Eff"), born 1899 (15) . However there was another half-sibling, Charles Baker, born to Jane three years before her marriage to John Cobb. Charles was baptised on the 27th of May 1885 in a private ceremony where his mother was listed as "Jane Baker, single woman" (16). On the 1891 Census, 5-year-old Charles was living at Pools, with John, Jane and Walter (as well as Hannah Bryant, Jane's twice-widowed mother) but oddly listed as "Border". On the 1901 Census, 15-year-old Charles Baker was working at a factory in the Clifton section of Bristol, living with the family of Jane's younger brother, a Police Constable also named Charles Baker. Yet by 1909 Charles was photographed back in Wootton Courtney, as part of a cricket team composed of players from Timberscombe and Wootton Courtenay, including his half-brother, Walter (17). Charles was also included in a family photograph of all of the Copp children taken c. 1910 (and visible at SP-290).
On the 1911 Census, Walter Copp was still living with his family at Pools. Thirteen-year-old Arthur Willie Copp was listed a "Tailor Apprentice", seemingly working with his brother. By this point, Walter had no doubt met Elizabeth Ann Stenner, known as Bessie, two years younger than him and the daughter of Samuel and Jane (nee Hale) Stenner, the proprietors of Timberscombe's Lion Inn, the village public house (18). Bessie's brother, Samuel James Stenner, was playing on the same cricket team photographed in 1909 with Walter and Charles. In that same year, Bessie was photographed (as seen at SP-166) supporting her brother's cricket team. Walter is not in that picture but no matter, she and Walter were married on the 30th of November 1915 at St. Petrock's Church in Timberscombe. Their trio of witnesses included Walter's siblings, Arthur Willie and Beaty, with the third being Samuel Stenner, perhaps Bessie's father but likely her brother (19).
On their Marriage Register, Bessie gave her address as "Timberscombe" and Walter's was "Wootton Courtenay", but it seems that the newlyweds soon moved into Great House Farm on Church Street in Timberscombe, which Bessie's father farmed when not running The Lion Inn (20). Great House Farm is where the second picture was taken in February 1917 shortly after the birth of Walter and Bessie's son, Leonard Copp (21), the big healthy baby seen on his father's lap. Six months after Leonard's birth, on the 2nd of June 1917, Walter enlisted with the newly formed British Army Labour Corps (22). On the British Army World War I Pension Records, his"Next of Kin" was his wife, Elizabeth Ann Copp, with her address given as Great House Farm.
The Labour Corps were formed in February 1917 for men who were "not healthy enough to serve on the front line" but who already had manual or labour experience and with minimal training could aid the troops in a myriad of ways --perhaps to assist in building a bridge or maybe in Walter's case, repair a uniform. The third photograph is of Walter Copp in his Labour Corps uniform. By the end of the war, over 380,000 men had served with the Labour Corps and indeed some had done so on the front line, as well as in Italy, Egypt and Salonika (23). On a memorial plaque at All Saints Church in Wootton Courtenay, Walter John Copp is the first man listed under "SERVED AT HOME". If Walter had a medical condition, it is not recorded but when he was released from the Labour Corps on the 29th of August 1919, his Pension Record was stamped"Being no longer physically fit for WAR SERVICE" (24).
A second son, Cyril, had been born to Walter and Bessie on the 30th of May 1918. Respectively in April 1922 and in June 1923, both Leonard and Cyril were enrolled at Timberscombe School. Sadly Leonard's last day in class was the 17th of November 1922 when he became ill with Scarlet Fever and died on the 23rd of November (25). In the school's Log Book, the Head Teacher, Miss Salome V. Wallace-- who hardly ever exposed emotion in her entries-- wrote "Am grieved to report the death of Leonard Copp" (26).
Around 1923, Walter, Bessie and Cyril moved into a newly built home called a No. 5 Council House (27). Three larger houses, each with two residences, were constructed on the southern side of the road that was known as Addison's Folly, or to many "the road to Cutcombe", as it was the exit from the village if traveling toward Wheddon Cross and Cutcombe. By the 1939 England and Wales Register, the Copps' home was still No. 5 Council House, the most western of the structures with No. 6 semi-detached to its right. Eventually the road become known as Bemberry Bank and with that, the Council Houses became Nos. 1 through 6 Bemberry Bank. No. 5 Bemberry Bank remained the home of Walter and Bessie Copp for the rest of their married life (28).
Despite the wartime clues of a weakened constitution, Walter John Copp certainly remained active, seemingly still playing cricket at least until he was 46-years-old (29), appears to have been coaching the game, aged 58 (30) and was certainly a patron and supporter of the Timberscombe Club throughout his 70's (31). The fourth photograph is dated 1928, with Walter appearing fit (and mustachoed) astride his Coventry Eagle Motorbike outside George Burnell's Garage at Wootton Courtenay (32). Copp remained active in both his hometown and where he ending up living. At least a period of time, possibly after World War I, he and Bessie participated in a temperance group, further explored at SP-292. For over 50 years Walter was the organist at All Saints Church in Wootton Courtenay (33) and from 1937 to 1956, an active member of the Board of Governors at the Timberscombe School (34).
That governorship, of course, included World War II when Timberscombe and the school absorbed a constant flow of evacuated children, uprooted and terrified, from the bombing of their homes across the country. Overnight the number of students doubled at Timberscombe. In his book published in 2022, "MILES FROM HOME, EVACUEES IN TIMBERSCOMBE DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR", author, Alan Hines, titled a chapter "Walter Copp" as so many former evacuees singled him out when asked about their memories. Thomas Robinson from London wrote that "He knew a lot of things" and "He must have been a world traveller". Actually Walter Copp stuck pretty much close to home at Wootton Courtenay and Timberscombe. He was recalled as a "grand chap", taking the children on nature walks over Dunkery, teaching them how to find the constellations and learn the myths from which they were named, identifying birds, sharing his various collections of bird eggs and butterflies and how to play hand bells. A shared memory, especially among the boys, was Walter Copp knew how to "find red deer", with Thomas Robinson adding "Once up on a Exmoor hill, we saw two stags fighting down below. No kid from London had ever seen anything like that" (35).
Walter Copp also taught wood carving to the evacuated children, a skill he practiced throughout his life and passed on to his son, Cyril. In 1921, Walter had participated in carving a detailed Chancel Screen at All Saint's, where his name is included on a framed handwritten tribute. In 1955, when Walter was 66-years-old, he carved an oak sideboard (visible at SP-219) which he later presented as a wedding gift to Eddie Smith and Joyce Ridd. Walter Copp was also the organist when Eddie and Joyce married on the 25th of August 1956 (36).
The fifth photograph, taken in 1965, was donated by Joyce Smith in 2020. She was the photographer. Her husband, Eddie (born Edwin C. H. Smith but was always "Eddie"), is third from the left seated with his dog. The group is gathered on the southwestern edge of Timberscombe at Ford Bridge, crossing the River Aville as it flows into the village. Ford Bridge is situated at the entrance to Bickham Manor, where Eddie was hired as a young man to be a cowman and tractor driver but later took charge of the Bickham sheep (37). Not in the photograph but near the group, to the right, is Ford Cottage, part of the Bickham estate and divided into two residences, where Eddie and Joyce lived at No.1 Ford. The gentleman seated to Eddie's left is George Elford. He and his wife, Evelyn May (nee Clatworthy) Elford occupied No. 2 Ford Cottage and George was a Road Labourer and also worked at Bickham Manor (38).
Seated to Mr. Elford's left was Joseph Raymond Boycott, also a Road Labourer. He and his wife, Molly Louisa (nee Court) lived in Wootton Courtenay and are buried together at All Saints Church (39). The last seated man on the right was William Ernest ("Bill") Clatworthy, baptised in Timberscombe in 1913, lived on Great House Street and had worked as a "Quarry Man" (40).
The name of the young man seated on the left end is not remembered and 57 years after the photograph was taken, Joyce Smith believed he was a visiting relative of the Copp family. And standing to the left is Walter John Copp, now around 76-years-old. He will pass away on the 13th of March 1970, still residing at No. 5 Bemberry Bank (41). With his hands in his pockets, Mr. Copp remains as well dressed as he was in 1912--although at this point, perhaps the creator of his outfit was Cyril Copp (profiled at SP-293), who followed in his father's footsteps as well-known tailor.
And Walter Copp was usually very well-dressed. This is especially apparent in the first photograph taken in 1912, when Walter would be about 22-years-old. On the 1911 Census, aged 21, he was already listed as a practising tailor. There are other professional photographs, taken about the same time, of Walter Copp wearing distinctive and rather dashing outfits (1). If these clothes were made by himself-- which those who knew Mr. Copp are certain they were--the photographs may have been taken to advertise his abilities, with himself being his own best model.
While his outfit in the top photograph is rather detailed and elegant (there are three jewelled accessories in the photograph), Walter Copp also created trousers and corduroy britches suitable for an Exmoor farmer (2). His own family history would have made him cognoscent with both aspects of Somerset life.
Walter's father, John, was born in 1845 and baptised at the All Saint's Church in Wootton Courtenay on the 13th of July as John Gould, the son of Thomas and Ann (nee Burnell) Gould, who had married at All Saint's on the 4th of May 1845 (3). Thomas Gould was born in 1820 to 19-year-old Sarah Gould, a single mother who had her child baptised at St. John the Baptist Church in Carhampton, where the record identified her baby as "base-born" (4).
The father of Thomas was considered to be Richard Taylor Copp, born the 21st of February 1797 in Carhampton, the son of John Frank Copp. The Copp family had been in this area, seemingly since the 1500's, with John Frank Copp being a member of at least the eighth Copp generation that had lived variously in Minehead, Wootton Courtenay, Timberscombe and Carhampton (5). By 1784, Harding Payne Copp, the older brother of John-Frank Copp, and his extended family were living at and farming Ranscombe, a large and successful property on the eastern side of Wootton Courtenay (6).
At SP-290 is a c. 1847 photograph of the two-year-old John Gould (the father of Walter John Copp) sitting on the knee of an elderly gentleman, identified as the boy's grandfather and is likely John Frank Copp, suggesting the Copp family at least acknowledged the child of Richard Taylor Copp (7), although John and his immediate family were certainly not among the Copps gathered at Ranscombe. Yet on the 1861 Census, John Gould, now 15-years-old, was going by the name of "John Copp". At the same time his father, Thomas, continued working as a farm labourer, moving his wife and their eight younger children from one farm job to another (8). In 1864, the newly renamed John Copp enlisted with the Plymouth Division of the Royal Marines Light Division, where he served the next twenty-one years (9). He finished his service in 1885, shortly before the death of his father (10), who by the 1871 Census had also changed his surname to Thomas Copp (as had his wife and the other children), although still working as a farm labourer until his death. On the 7th of April 1888, 42-year-old John Copp married 25-year-old Jane Baker and on the 9th of May 1889, their son, Walter John Copp, was born (11). By the 1901 Census, John Copp and family had moved into the house called Pools, part of the Wootton Courtenay Estate and fronting the main street of Wootton Courtenay (later renamed Rose Cottage), where Mr. Copp lived until his passing in 1919 (12)--clearly with no need to travel from farm to farm, as his father, Thomas, had done.
Walter was the eldest of three more children born to John and Jane Copp, being Beatrice Elizabeth ("Beaty"), born in October 1891 (13), Arthur Willie, born June 1897 (14) and Ettie ("Eff"), born 1899 (15) . However there was another half-sibling, Charles Baker, born to Jane three years before her marriage to John Cobb. Charles was baptised on the 27th of May 1885 in a private ceremony where his mother was listed as "Jane Baker, single woman" (16). On the 1891 Census, 5-year-old Charles was living at Pools, with John, Jane and Walter (as well as Hannah Bryant, Jane's twice-widowed mother) but oddly listed as "Border". On the 1901 Census, 15-year-old Charles Baker was working at a factory in the Clifton section of Bristol, living with the family of Jane's younger brother, a Police Constable also named Charles Baker. Yet by 1909 Charles was photographed back in Wootton Courtney, as part of a cricket team composed of players from Timberscombe and Wootton Courtenay, including his half-brother, Walter (17). Charles was also included in a family photograph of all of the Copp children taken c. 1910 (and visible at SP-290).
On the 1911 Census, Walter Copp was still living with his family at Pools. Thirteen-year-old Arthur Willie Copp was listed a "Tailor Apprentice", seemingly working with his brother. By this point, Walter had no doubt met Elizabeth Ann Stenner, known as Bessie, two years younger than him and the daughter of Samuel and Jane (nee Hale) Stenner, the proprietors of Timberscombe's Lion Inn, the village public house (18). Bessie's brother, Samuel James Stenner, was playing on the same cricket team photographed in 1909 with Walter and Charles. In that same year, Bessie was photographed (as seen at SP-166) supporting her brother's cricket team. Walter is not in that picture but no matter, she and Walter were married on the 30th of November 1915 at St. Petrock's Church in Timberscombe. Their trio of witnesses included Walter's siblings, Arthur Willie and Beaty, with the third being Samuel Stenner, perhaps Bessie's father but likely her brother (19).
On their Marriage Register, Bessie gave her address as "Timberscombe" and Walter's was "Wootton Courtenay", but it seems that the newlyweds soon moved into Great House Farm on Church Street in Timberscombe, which Bessie's father farmed when not running The Lion Inn (20). Great House Farm is where the second picture was taken in February 1917 shortly after the birth of Walter and Bessie's son, Leonard Copp (21), the big healthy baby seen on his father's lap. Six months after Leonard's birth, on the 2nd of June 1917, Walter enlisted with the newly formed British Army Labour Corps (22). On the British Army World War I Pension Records, his"Next of Kin" was his wife, Elizabeth Ann Copp, with her address given as Great House Farm.
The Labour Corps were formed in February 1917 for men who were "not healthy enough to serve on the front line" but who already had manual or labour experience and with minimal training could aid the troops in a myriad of ways --perhaps to assist in building a bridge or maybe in Walter's case, repair a uniform. The third photograph is of Walter Copp in his Labour Corps uniform. By the end of the war, over 380,000 men had served with the Labour Corps and indeed some had done so on the front line, as well as in Italy, Egypt and Salonika (23). On a memorial plaque at All Saints Church in Wootton Courtenay, Walter John Copp is the first man listed under "SERVED AT HOME". If Walter had a medical condition, it is not recorded but when he was released from the Labour Corps on the 29th of August 1919, his Pension Record was stamped"Being no longer physically fit for WAR SERVICE" (24).
A second son, Cyril, had been born to Walter and Bessie on the 30th of May 1918. Respectively in April 1922 and in June 1923, both Leonard and Cyril were enrolled at Timberscombe School. Sadly Leonard's last day in class was the 17th of November 1922 when he became ill with Scarlet Fever and died on the 23rd of November (25). In the school's Log Book, the Head Teacher, Miss Salome V. Wallace-- who hardly ever exposed emotion in her entries-- wrote "Am grieved to report the death of Leonard Copp" (26).
Around 1923, Walter, Bessie and Cyril moved into a newly built home called a No. 5 Council House (27). Three larger houses, each with two residences, were constructed on the southern side of the road that was known as Addison's Folly, or to many "the road to Cutcombe", as it was the exit from the village if traveling toward Wheddon Cross and Cutcombe. By the 1939 England and Wales Register, the Copps' home was still No. 5 Council House, the most western of the structures with No. 6 semi-detached to its right. Eventually the road become known as Bemberry Bank and with that, the Council Houses became Nos. 1 through 6 Bemberry Bank. No. 5 Bemberry Bank remained the home of Walter and Bessie Copp for the rest of their married life (28).
Despite the wartime clues of a weakened constitution, Walter John Copp certainly remained active, seemingly still playing cricket at least until he was 46-years-old (29), appears to have been coaching the game, aged 58 (30) and was certainly a patron and supporter of the Timberscombe Club throughout his 70's (31). The fourth photograph is dated 1928, with Walter appearing fit (and mustachoed) astride his Coventry Eagle Motorbike outside George Burnell's Garage at Wootton Courtenay (32). Copp remained active in both his hometown and where he ending up living. At least a period of time, possibly after World War I, he and Bessie participated in a temperance group, further explored at SP-292. For over 50 years Walter was the organist at All Saints Church in Wootton Courtenay (33) and from 1937 to 1956, an active member of the Board of Governors at the Timberscombe School (34).
That governorship, of course, included World War II when Timberscombe and the school absorbed a constant flow of evacuated children, uprooted and terrified, from the bombing of their homes across the country. Overnight the number of students doubled at Timberscombe. In his book published in 2022, "MILES FROM HOME, EVACUEES IN TIMBERSCOMBE DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR", author, Alan Hines, titled a chapter "Walter Copp" as so many former evacuees singled him out when asked about their memories. Thomas Robinson from London wrote that "He knew a lot of things" and "He must have been a world traveller". Actually Walter Copp stuck pretty much close to home at Wootton Courtenay and Timberscombe. He was recalled as a "grand chap", taking the children on nature walks over Dunkery, teaching them how to find the constellations and learn the myths from which they were named, identifying birds, sharing his various collections of bird eggs and butterflies and how to play hand bells. A shared memory, especially among the boys, was Walter Copp knew how to "find red deer", with Thomas Robinson adding "Once up on a Exmoor hill, we saw two stags fighting down below. No kid from London had ever seen anything like that" (35).
Walter Copp also taught wood carving to the evacuated children, a skill he practiced throughout his life and passed on to his son, Cyril. In 1921, Walter had participated in carving a detailed Chancel Screen at All Saint's, where his name is included on a framed handwritten tribute. In 1955, when Walter was 66-years-old, he carved an oak sideboard (visible at SP-219) which he later presented as a wedding gift to Eddie Smith and Joyce Ridd. Walter Copp was also the organist when Eddie and Joyce married on the 25th of August 1956 (36).
The fifth photograph, taken in 1965, was donated by Joyce Smith in 2020. She was the photographer. Her husband, Eddie (born Edwin C. H. Smith but was always "Eddie"), is third from the left seated with his dog. The group is gathered on the southwestern edge of Timberscombe at Ford Bridge, crossing the River Aville as it flows into the village. Ford Bridge is situated at the entrance to Bickham Manor, where Eddie was hired as a young man to be a cowman and tractor driver but later took charge of the Bickham sheep (37). Not in the photograph but near the group, to the right, is Ford Cottage, part of the Bickham estate and divided into two residences, where Eddie and Joyce lived at No.1 Ford. The gentleman seated to Eddie's left is George Elford. He and his wife, Evelyn May (nee Clatworthy) Elford occupied No. 2 Ford Cottage and George was a Road Labourer and also worked at Bickham Manor (38).
Seated to Mr. Elford's left was Joseph Raymond Boycott, also a Road Labourer. He and his wife, Molly Louisa (nee Court) lived in Wootton Courtenay and are buried together at All Saints Church (39). The last seated man on the right was William Ernest ("Bill") Clatworthy, baptised in Timberscombe in 1913, lived on Great House Street and had worked as a "Quarry Man" (40).
The name of the young man seated on the left end is not remembered and 57 years after the photograph was taken, Joyce Smith believed he was a visiting relative of the Copp family. And standing to the left is Walter John Copp, now around 76-years-old. He will pass away on the 13th of March 1970, still residing at No. 5 Bemberry Bank (41). With his hands in his pockets, Mr. Copp remains as well dressed as he was in 1912--although at this point, perhaps the creator of his outfit was Cyril Copp (profiled at SP-293), who followed in his father's footsteps as well-known tailor.
Creator
Anonymous /
Anonymous /
Anonymous /
Anonymous /
Joyce Smith
Anonymous /
Anonymous /
Anonymous /
Joyce Smith
Date
1912
February 1917
dated 1914 but is possibly 1917
1928
1965
February 1917
dated 1914 but is possibly 1917
1928
1965
Language
English
Identifier
professional photograph of Walter John Copp as a young tailor, 1912 / Walter John Copp, Bessie Copp and Leonard Copp at Great House Farm, Timberscombe , 1917 / Walter John Copp, as a member of the Labour Corps in World War I / Walter John Copp outside of George Burnell's Garage in Wooton Courtenay, 1928 / Walter John Copp in 1965 at Ford Bridge, Timberscombe, with Eddie Smith, George Elford, Joseph Boycott and Bill Clatworthy, 1965
Acquisition Date
2019
2019
2019
2019
2020
2019
2019
2019
2020
Acquisition Method
Gift
Category
PEOPLE: Named / Timberscombe
PEOPLE: Occupations / Timberscombe
PEOPLE: Organizations / Timberscombe
PEOPLE: Occupations / Timberscombe
PEOPLE: Organizations / Timberscombe
Condition
Good
Condition Notes
entered by Tom Sperling
Condition Date
2023
Dimension Type
W X R
Dimension Units
cm
Dimension Value
16.5 X 10.5
16.5 X 10.5
16.5 X 10.5
17 X 11.15
12 X 18.5
10.5 X 17
16.5 X 10.5
16.5 X 10.5
17 X 11.15
12 X 18.5
10.5 X 17
Institution Name
St. Petrock's History Group
Notes
(1) other photographs of Walter Copp as a young tailor can be see at the Rural Life Museum of West Somerset in Volume 50, photographs of the Copp family, possibly collected by Walter John Copp and donated by his family (2) "MILES FROM HOME, EVACUEES IN TIMBERSCOMBE DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR"by Alan Hines, Copyright C. 2022 by Alan Hines, first published 1 July 2022 (3) Somerset, England, Church of England, Baptisms, 1813-1914 and Somerset, England, Marriage Registers, Bonds and Allegations, 1754-1914 (4) Somerset, England, Church of England, Baptisms, 1813-1914, Somerset, England, Church of England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1531-1812 , UK Poll Books and Electoral Registers, 1834 and 1841, the 1851 England Census and the birth of Mary Copp in 1784 at Ranscombe Farm, Geneanet Community Trees Index, Ancestry, com (5) England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975, Somerset, England, Church of England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1531-1812, Somerset, England, Marriages Registers, Bonds and Allegations, 1754-1914 , UK Poll Books and Registers, 1834 and 1841 and UK and Ireland, Find A Grave Index, 1300s-Current (6) Somerset, England, Church of England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1531-1813 and Somerset, England, Marriage Registers, Bonds and Allegations, 1754-1914 (7) A photograph, dated c. 1847, of 2-year-old John Gould (later Copp) with an elderly man is seen at SP-290 and is also in Volume 50 at the West Somerset Rural Life Museum, where a label identifies the man as the boy' grandfather, which likely would be James Frank Copp of Carhampton. Also seen at SP-290 is a painting of James Frank Copp at an older age, shared with the St. Petrock's History Group in April 2023 by his great, great, great, great, great grandson, Richard Copp and the painted man does look like the man in the photograph. (8) 1851, 1861, 1871 and 1881 England Censuses (9) 1871 and 1881 England Censuses and as handwritten on the reverse of the photograph (10) UK and Ireland, Find a Grave Index, 1300s and Current (11) Somerset, England, Marriage Registers, Bonds and Allegations, 1754-1914 (12) Historic Environment Record, Exmoor National Park, MEM29749 (13) England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915 and as handwritten on the reverse of the photograph in Volume 50 at the West Somerset Rural Life Museum (14) 1939 England and Wales Register (15) Somerset, England, School Registers, 1860-1949 (16) Somerset, England, Church of England, Baptisms, 1813-1914 (17) as seen at SP-166 (18) 1911 England Census (19) Somerset, England, Marriage Registers, Bonds and Allegations, 1754-1914 (20) 1911 England Census (21) as dated on a label in Volume 50 at the West Somerset Rural Life Museum (22) UK, British Army, World War I Pension Records, 1914-1920 (23) National Army Museum, nam.ac.uk and UK, British Army, World War I, Medal Rolls Index and Pension Records, 1914-1921 (24) UK, British Army, World War I Pension Records, 1914-1921 (25) Timberscombe School ADMISSION REGISTER, 1897-1944, Nos. 411 and 420 (26) Timberscombe School, LOG BOOK, 1 April 1910-25 March 1974, page 223 (27) the photograph of Bessie and Cyril Copp at No. 5 Council House was labelled a being photographed in 1923 in Volume 50 at the West Somerset Rural Life Museum but may have been taken a little later (28) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations) 1858-1995 (29) as seen at SP-170 (30) as seen at SP-173 (31) as seen at SP-175 (32) as donated by the Timberscombe School in 2019, with location identified in Volume 30 at the West Somerset Rural Life Museum, featuring photographs of Wootton Courtenay (33) as recalled in 2020 by Joyce Smith of Ford Cottage, Timberscombe (34) Timberscombe School MINUTES BOOK, 3 April 1930-2 April 1974 (35) MILES FROM HOME, EVACUEES IN TIMBERSCOMBE DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR", featuring memories by Ernie Munson, Norman Sutton and Thomas Robinson on page 78 (36) as recalled by Joyce Smith in 2020 and a newspaper clipping shared by Joyce Smith, probably from the West Somerset Free Press", headlined "Wedded at Winsford, Miss J.E. Ridd and Mr. E.C. Smith" (37) from a typed copy of the funeral eulogy for Eddie Smith, as written and read by Bernard Dru, owner of Bickham Manor, at St. Petrock's Church (38) 1939 England and Wales Register and the 1911 England Census (39) 1939 England and Wales Register, England and Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations) 1865-1995 and UK and Ireland, Find A Grave Index, 1300s-Current (40) Somerset, England, Church of England, Baptisms, 1813-1914 (4) England and Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations) 1865-1995
Storage Location
St. Petrock's History Group Archive
Storage Date
2023
Storage Notes
St. Petrock's History Group PHOTOGRAPHS
Item Reference
SP-291
Technique
Copies
Citation
Anonymous /
Anonymous /
Anonymous /
Anonymous /
Joyce Smith, “THE COPP FAMILY, Part 2: Walter John Copp,” St. Petrock's History Group, accessed May 16, 2024, https://stpetrockshistorygroup.omeka.net/items/show/3559.
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