It’s a long from Eurongilly to North Africa, but it’s where pilot Jack Cooper was last seen. Mr Cooper enlisted in the Royal Air Force in 1939 and went missing over north Africa in 1941. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service.
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He is remembered on a plague in the village.
Canberra’s Robert Crick was riding his motorbike between Wagga and Canberra and discovered the plaque by chance. “I thought about it, a 22-year-old killed over north Africa, I wondered who he was,” Mr Crick said.
Starting with the Australian War Memorial and eventually British military archives, Mr Crick researched who Mr Cooper was. He presented it to Mr Cooper’s nephew Bruce, and the Broadway Museum this week. “I started with a hand-written history by one of the Cooper’s Jim, Bruce’s dad,” Mr Crick said.
Bruce Cooper said a call from Mr Crick was surprising and descried the research as exciting. He said he didn’t know much about his uncle. “I knew that he died in the war, this research has brought him back to life.”
Broadway Museum treasurer Rob Rashleigh said the museum was not just a collection of interesting things but an archive of the district’s history.
“It’s a resource for Junee and district, if families contribute we can add it to the archives,” he said.
“We often have descendants come and ask about their family history.”