BORN HULL 1889. SON OF ROBERT HAYLETT & HARRIET COOPER. ONE OF SIX CHILDREN. HIS FATHER DIED IN 1910. HE MARRIED PHOEBE ANNIE DADDY, IN 1912. THEY LIVED AT SOUTHGATE, HEDON, HULL, WITH THEIR TWO YOUNG CHILDREN (NAVAL RECORDS ADDRESS). HE WAS A RESERVIST AT THE OUTBREAK OF WAR, AND SERVED AS PRIVATE, 7872, “F” COMPANY, 1ST EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT, UNTIL FEBRUARY 1919. HE
HE SAILED OUT OF HULL AND GRIMSBY PORTS. THE TRAWLER ‘HELCIA’ GRIMSBY’ STRUCK A MINE, IN THE NORTH SEA AND WAS REPORTED MISSING ON 22/09/1919. HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL, ON 24/10/1919. *
HE IS COMMEMORATED ON THE TOWER HILL MEMORIAL, LONDON, UK. WAS LOST WITH ROBERT GIBSON (40) FROM 23 EXCHANGE STREET, HULL. MOST OF THE OTHER CREW WERE FROM GRIMSBY.
ROBERT HAYLETT COOPER IS ONE OF 18 NAMES LISTED ON THE WW1 MEMORIAL, IVY LANE HEDON.
HIS BROTHER, ERNEST ROBERT COOPER, WAS LOST AT SEA ON HMS ‘HOGUE’, FIVE YEARS BEFORE, ON 22/09/1914.
Helcia was a 230 GRT steam trawler completed in 1906 by Cochrane & Sons Shipbuilders Ltd. for Northwold Steam Fishing Co. Ltd. She was registered in Grimsby as GY.152. Her owner at the time of her loss was Sylvia Steam Fishing Co. Ltd. She was posted missing on not returning from a North Sea fishing trip on 22 September 1919 and may well have struck a mine. There were no survivors. The names of nine crew are recorded on the Tower Hill Naval Memorial, London
