550192 Trooper Francis Herbert (Sherry) Cooper, 8th King’s Royal Irish Hussars in the 1930’s. Herbert would have been originally trained as a mounted Trooper as the 8th didn’t mechanise until November 1935 in Egypt.

Tpr Francis Herbert Cooper, 8H
Tpr Francis Herbert Cooper

He left the service prior to the outbreak of war and returned to England but was recalled to the colours in September 1939 and posted to the 4th Hussars who were stationed in England.

He deployed with the 4th Hussars to Egypt in late 1940 serving in ‘C’ Squadron and was a batman/driver to Maj P W Dollar who was the Squadron Leader.

In early 1941 the 4th were deployed to Greece to counter the Italian and German invasions.

Herbert was captured at Corinth with the majority of the Regiment when the Regimental HQ was overrun and was then a PoW in Stalag XVIII-A.

This was a World War II German Army (Wehrmacht) prisoner-of-war camp located to the south of the town of Wolfsberg, in the southern Austrian state of Carinthia, then a part of Nazi Germany.

Herbert died in Stafford Infirmary on 15 December 1985 aged 73.

Photo courtesy of Cyril Cooper, Herbert’s son.

Related topics

  1. A short history of The 4th Hussars
  2. Middle East (Greece and Crete) timeline