Thomas Thornville Cooper

Thomas Thornville Cooper (1839–1878) was an English traveller in China, and later a political agent in Burma.

Early life The eighth son of John Ibbetson Cooper, a coalfitter and shipowner, he was born on 13 September 1839, at Bishopwearmouth, County Durham. He was educated at the Grange School there, under James Cowan. He was then sent to a tutor in Sussex, where his health failed.

Cooper was advised to take a voyage to Australia. There he made journeys into the outback. In 1859 he went to India, and worked in Madras, in the house of Arbuthnot & Co. In 1861 he left his appointment, and went to Sindh on a visit to a brother who was living there. The following year, he visited Bombay, and moved in by way of Beypore and Madras to Burma. At Rangoon he studied the Burmese language.

Cooper therefore struck southwards, following the valley of the Lancang Jiang and reached Zegu on its western bank. This was the most westerly point that had been explored by Westerners starting from China, in the region of the major rivers north of Bhamo. Here he was within a hundred miles of Manchi (Mangkyi), then in Hkamti Long, a Shan state. It is on the N'Mai River, and had been visited by the military surveyor Richard Wilcox, from India, in 1826. A Pioneer of Commerce (1871) The Mishmee Hills (1873)