Maurice Cooper

Captain Maurice Lea Cooper (18 December 1898 – 2 October 1918) was a World War I flying ace credited with six aerial victories.

Cooper was born in Dublin, Ireland and educated in York, England.

Biography
He joined the Royal Naval Air Service on 29 April 1917 and was commissioned a Flight Sub-Lieutenant. He was posted to 13 Naval Squadron to fly a Sopwith Camel. He destroyed an enemy two-seater on 5 December 1917, aided by fellow aces John Pinder, George Chisholm MacKay, and John Paynter. On 29 January 1918, aided by MacKay, Paynter, John Edmund Greene, and Leonard Slatter, he destroyed a seaplane. On 12 March 1918, Cooper shared another victory with Greene, MacKay, and another pilot. On 1 April, Cooper flamed a German two-seater seaplane at Zeebrugge, killing M. R. Behrendt and D. R. Hauptvogel. On 7 July 1918, he, Charles Sims, and four other pilots drove down an Albatros D.V. On 30 July 1918, he drove down another D.V at Bruges. That made his tally four enemy planes destroyed, three of which were shared wins, and two driven down out of control, one of which was shared.

During this string of triumphs, he became a flight commander, and won a Distinguished Flying Cross on 15 June 1918. On 2 October 1918, while bombing an enemy troop train, his plane was hit by ground fire and he died in the crash near Gitsberg, Belgium.