Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Cooper, Daniel
COOPER, Sir DANIEL, first baronet (1821–1902), Australian merchant, was second son of Thomas Cooper and Jane, daughter of Nathaniel Ramsden, being one of a family of five sons and four daughters. He was born at Bolton-le-Moors, Lancashire, on 1 July 1821, but went out quite young with his father to Sydney, New South Wales. In 1833 he returned to England for his education in schools near London and at University College; in 1841 he entered a mercantile house at Havre, partly for general training, and in 1843 returned to Sydney to take his place in the firm of Holt & Cooper, which several years later became Cooper & Co.
In 1849 Cooper decided to enter public life, and was elected to the old legislative council of New South Wales. His most prominent public action, however, in the ensuing period was his part in raising funds for the relief of the sufferers from the Crimean campaign; he himself subscribed 1000l. to start the fund in Australia, and promised 500l. a year for each year the war might continue. He also visited England more than once in these years, partly in connection with this charitable work.
In 1856, on the grant of responsible government to New South Wales, Cooper was elected member for Sydney Hamlets in the new council, and on 22 May 1856 was made the speaker. In the following year he was knighted by patent. On 31 Aug. 1859 he decided to resign office and settle anew in England, and, though pressed to form a ministry in succession to Mr. Forster, he adhered to his decision.
He returned to England shortly before the long period of distress in Lancashire caused by the American civil war, which cut off the cotton supplies. His active sympathy and competent organisation were readily placed at the disposal of the sufferers, and it was mainly for his services in this crisis that he was created a baronet (26 Jan. 1863) as of Woollahra, New South Wales.
Though he now resided permanently in London, Cooper was always ready to render assistance in the development of New South Wales, with the interests of which he was constantly identified. He did good work in regulating the trade in Australian wool. He acted as agent-general for the colony (1897-9) and looked after its interests at numerous exhibitions, both on the Continent and in London. He was president of the bank of New South Wales (1855-61) and a member of the council of Sydney University, where he founded in 1857 the Cooper scholarship.
Cooper was made a K.C.M.G. in 1880, and G.C.M.G. in 1888. He died on 5 June 1902 at 6 De Vere Gardens, Kensington. He married, on 3 Sept. 1846, Elizabeth, third daughter of William Hill of Sydney, and left two sons and five daughters. He was succeeded as second baronet by his eldest son, Daniel, a deputy-lieutenant of Cambridgeshire.
[Heaton's Austral. Dict. of Dates; Mennell's Dict. of Australas. Biog.; Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 1902; The Times, 6 June 1902.]