Can you match the amazing Cooper family’s record-breaking longevity?
The 11 siblings who make up the Cooper clan.
WHEN you’ve got 10 brothers and sisters, you’re never short of something to celebrate.
“There’s always a birthday, wedding or christening,” smiled 66-year-old spokesman John, who is seventh in the Cooper family hierarchy.
Now the former Staddons stationery buyer of Mendip Way, Sundon Park, is trying to establish whether he and his siblings hold some kind of record.
“We’ve got a combined age of 747 and between us have 26 children, 43 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren,” he said.
The family are incredibly close and still live in the Luton and Dunstable area where they grew up – apart from one sister, 72-year-old Elsie, who moved to Watford.
Les, 63, is the only one who never married. “It wasn’t for me,” the building worker shrugged. “But I like going for a game of darts and a drink with my brothers.”
The five brothers and six sisters are always there for each other and have fond memories of their carefree childhood, even though it sounds daunting by today’s standards.
“There were three of us to a bed, top to tail,” John recalled. “My father died in 1952 when I was seven and my youngest brother Geoff was born after he died.
“Times were extremely hard. We never had any Christmas presents, apart from oranges and apples from uncles and aunts.
“The biggest thing I remember is my first holiday when I was 14. My best friend’s family took me to the Isle of Wight, where I learned to swim.
“We didn’t have TV until my elder brother Alf bought a cheap set in the mid 1960s to watch the cup final. We nearly came to fisticuffs over whether to watch it on ITV or the BBC .”
John is the practical joker of the family and self-appointed organiser of their frequent get-togethers.
“We’re all in good health and there’s always lots of fun and laughter when we have a ‘Cooper do,’” he said.
“We try to meet up at Easter and Christmas and I always have a summer barbecue.”
Two of the girls – Vera and Glad – married brothers, Ted and Len Fensome, although they’re sadly now widowed. Another sister, Sylvia, also married a Fensome (no relation).
Mavis, 68, worked in the cigarette factory on Nelson Street when she left school, as did her sisters Sylvia and Glad.
She said: “Mum was very domesticated. We had a mangle and an old-fashioned iron that you heated on the stove.” Jan, 62, chipped in: “Everything was home-made and I used to love mixing the Yorkshire pudding with a wooden spoon.”
Vera added: “Our parents were strict but we all mucked in and had a laugh.”
Big brother Alf became the man about the house after his father died.
“We used newspaper as toilet paper,” he recalled. “And I had to empty the bucket at the bottom of the garden. We had an allotment and grew our own vegees.
“I don’t regret growing up in a big family. It teaches you all sorts of skills.”
John’s wife Jan, 56, once asked her mother-in-law if she’d have had 11 children if birth control had been freely available.
Jan said: “She thought for a while and then said ‘No, I’d only have had eight.’”
> Can you break the Cooper family record? Let us know if you come from a big family. Call Bev Creagh on 01582 798513
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Luton
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North east
Comments
There are 2 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
alan roe
Sunday, April 22, 2012 at 06:08 PMI FORGOT TO SAY THAT THIS WAS AT CIGARETTE IN LUTONI 1961ALAN ROE a.roe@talktalk.net
alan roe
Sunday, April 22, 2012 at 06:03 PMI worked for a scrap merchant in 1961 and can remember finding hundreds of cans and lids in old boxs which split when picked up we put the tins in 40 gallon drums with orders to empty into the press and send back when they did not return i phoned the office the boss JOSH PEARCE a well known scrap man from st albans found out the men had put the drum and contents into the press he said drum value 10 shilling tins 6 pencce total value 7 pence loss to me 9 shiling and 5 pence x 20 a telling off I HAVE NEVER FORGOT ALAN ROE
Page 1 of 1
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.