H.F. Cooper & J.A. Burroughs photos Strabane c1901 to 1950 v1

Herbert Fredrick Thomas Cooper was born in Hammersmith, London, in 1874 he was the son of H. F. Cooper who died 25th March 1960 aged 85. He was married to Annie (b.1884 d.1935). They has issue:
daughter Joan Doreen Emily Sargeant, d.1921
eldest son, Fredrick Kenneth, b,1904 d.1954
daughter, Gladys, b.1906 d.1998, aged 92
Son, S/LDR Douglas Cooper DFC b.1917 d.2004, aged 87

Their son, Squadron Leader Herbert Douglas Haig Cooper was an RAF pilot in WW2 and a Prision of War in Stalag Luft 111. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC).

Herbert arrived in Strabane just before the outbreak of the First World War. He took over the photographic studio in Railway Street, Strabane which had been run by J.A. Burroughs from about 1901 until 1913. From then until his death on 25 March 1960 aged 85. Cooper amassed a huge collection of photographs. He also recorded films, of race meetings at Carricklee etc., managed the Pallindrome cinema in Railway Street, Strabane, and had a commercial photographic studio in Blackpool.

Cooper took photographs throughout the counties of Tyrone, Donegal, Derry, Armagh and Fermanagh, and made occasional sorties into Co. Down (Bangor). His style is noticeably different from the other better-known photographers of life in Ulster since 1900, like R.J. Welch (b.1859 d.1936), A.R. Hogg (b.1870 d.1939) and W.A. Green (b.1870 d.1958).

Cooper's more informal approach is evident throughout his collection, he did take formal photographs in a stylised way: this is particularly true of his portraits. But his 'snap-happy' policy has given us a record of many aspects of life in the countryside and small towns in the west of Ulster for the entire first half of the twentieth century. His subjects ranged across the whole community: with his professional eye and the detached view as an Englishman, he was in an ideal position to photograph scenes which were characteristic of both main traditions. The collection has been described as the best record of life in provincial Ireland before the Second World War.

In 1913, the Cooper family build the Palidrome Cinema on Railway Road/Street and during 1935 the family opened the Commodore Cinema on Main Street, Strabane. c1945, Douglas Cooper returns to Strabane from Royal Air Force duties and becomes manager of the Commodore Cinema.
The Commodore closed in the 1970’s. By the 1953 it was being run by Commodore Cinemas (NI) Ltd. It was closed on 1st Jan 1972. Reopened Dec 1978 as a cinema, pool room and billiard hall. A fire occurred in Aug 1981 but cinema reopened the weekend of 20 March 1982 with ‘Stripes’ a 1981 American war comedy starring Bill Murray, ‘Arthur’ staring Dudley Moore as Arthur Bach, a drunken New York City millionaire and ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’, but this was short lived as it closed in July 1982. from approx Nov 2013 it’s been Commodore Bingo and Amusements to now Dec 2023, owned by Bentley Leisure.

The Circus
The three main circus shows photographed by Herbert Cooper were Duffy’s Circus, Buff Bill’s American Circus and Hanneford’s Canadian Circus. A few circuses toured Ireland in the years before 1914, it was the heyday for these travelling shows. Big Tops were then lit by flares and it wasn’t until well into the 1920s that electric lighting became common, so most of the pictures were taken outdoors and during daylight hours.The photos of Duffy’s Circus were, almost certainly, all taken during a visit to Strabane in 1911. Duffy’s Circus was originally founded in 1775, Patrick James Duffy, who performed as an acrobat in circuses in the 1840s in England, He had seven children, six of them got involved in the circus. In the 1870s, Duffy's second son, John, founded the John Duffy Circus. he died in 1909. When Duffy’s Circus came to Strabane in 1911, it was already being run by John’s widow, Annie. One of John Duffy’s sons, James, married Lena Kayes, daughter of William Kayes (b.1856 d.1933) who ran the famous Buff Bill’s American Circus in Ireland before and after the First World War. Kayes himself being ‘Buff Bill’. Ned Hanneford’s Canadian Circus toured Ireland up to 1916. It was renowned for its menagerie, including lions and ‘bears that talk’. It also featured a splendid street parade headed by an ornate, gilded bandwagon drawn by 8 sleek horses. Cooper’s photos of Hanneford’s Circus must have been taken before 1914, a period which seems to have been the heyday of circus visits to Strabane.

In the 1970s, over 70,000 of Cooper's glass plate negatives (known as The Cooper Collection) were deposited in PRONI by his son, Mr. H. D. H. Cooper and they were subsequently purchased by the office, some of J. A. Burrows's work were included.

The Cooper family plot is located in Strabane Cemetary