William Cooper

William Cooper (26 December 1813 – 20 May 1885) was a British veterinary surgeon, agriculturalist and industrialist who specialised in the manufacture of agricultural insecticides for livestock. He is credited with developing the first successful sheep dip, Cooper's Dip, in 1852.

Early life and career Cooper was born in Clunbury, Shropshire. He trained as a veterinary surgeon and by the 1843 he had moved to set up a practice in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. Legend has it that he arrived in town with nothing but a bag with containing the tools of his trade. In 1849, Cooper became one of the first veterinary surgeons to qualify from the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. In the 1851 census he is recorded as a resident of the High Street in Berkhamstead. He later moved to a house on the High Street called The Poplars; this house was later the birthplace of the actor Sir Michael Hordern in 1911.

As a veterinary surgeon he was frequently confronted by the horrendous condition of farm animals caused by various parasitic insects, in particular a skin disease which afflicted sheep known as sheep scab - at the time treated very ineffectually by only ointments composed of tobacco stalk and sulphur emulsified in goose fat. For services to Agriculture, Richard was created a baronet by King Edward VII in 1905, becoming the first baronet in the newly created Cooper Baronetcy of Shenstone Court.

The business, later known as Cooper, McDougall & Robertson, continued to trade for many years until it was bought in 1973 by the pharmaceuticals company Wellcome. The Berkhamsted chemical works eventually closed down and most of the buildings have since been demolished.

The Cooper family grave is located in the Cemetery of St Peter's Church on Rectory Lane, Berkhamsted. A stained glass window designed by the glazier Nathaniel Westlake was installed in the north aisle of St Peter's Church in 1885 in memory of William Cooper.