Dawlish World War One Project

Albert John Hooper enlisted at Exeter to join the Devonshire Regiment. He may have joined with John Dew after a local recruiting campaign as their service numbers are only 5 numbers apart – 10723 and 10728. They became part of the 8th (Service) Battalion which suffered huge casualties at the Battle of Loos.

He was listed as Killed in Action, on the first day of the Battle of Loos. He was one of eight soldiers from Dawlish who died on that day.

Albert John Hooper was the eldest child of William and Mary Hooper and the grandson of John (1808-1876) and Elizabeth Hooper (1815-1896).

The Hooper household in 1881, at 41 High Street, Dawlish, included two children, Albert, son, 2, and Annie, a daughter of 1 month.

William Davey Hooper died in the June quarter of 1885 (transcribed as William Dover Hooper).

The widow Mary was living in 1891 in the High Street with Albert, scholar, Annie (1880-1919) and a third child Ethel (1883-1964), and working as a ‘laundry mangler’. A blacksmith, George Oliver, was boarding with them.

In time Albert went to Dawlish Boys' School.

By 1901 they lived at Truman Court, High Street, when Mary was 53 (actually 56), and her family consisted of Albert, 22, a shoemaker/bootmaker, Annie, 20, a housemaid, and Ethel, 18.

Ten years later only Albert is at home, working as a Postman and living with his mother at No 2 Court, High Street.