More about William Wilcox Cooper

William Cooper was the son of Station Officer George Cooper of St Andrews Coast Guard Station and his sister was Miss Nellie C Cooper of 5 Robertson Street, Dundee. He joined the Royal Navy as a Boy Signalman, Second Class in 1907 age 14. In 1911 he volunteered for the Submarine Service and was drafted to HMS Vulcan, a submarine depot ship based in Dundee. During the war he served in submarines, one of which was E19. HMS Submarine K17 was sunk on 31 January 1918 during night time fleet exercises later known as the Battle of May Island when she was attached to the 13th Submarine Flotilla. A cruiser, HMS Fearless, ploughed into K17 at the head of a line of submarines. She sank in about 8 minutes with the loss of all onboard. William Cooper is commemorated on Chatham Naval Memorial in Kent.

Whilst taking part in exercises off May Island, K-17 was astern of HMS Courageous when the latter changed course to avoid two trawlers, which were spotted ahead. K-17 turned but K-22 and K-14 were involved in a collision. Meanwhile HMS Fearless was steaming at 21 knots towards the area oblivious of the accident. Suddenly the Fearless appeared over the horizon and ploughed into K-17, water gushed into the boat through the pierced pressure hull. The order to abandon ship was quickly given. Within 8 minutes K-17 had disappeared. The survivors were now in the water and the other submarines attempted to pick them up. Sadly the destroyers were unaware of the location of the accident and ploughed through the survivors. Read more at wrecksite: https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?62767