Art is a fourth generation Cooper in this area; his great-grandfather came from Ireland. Art Cooper joined the Lorne Scots early in the war. It was an association that was to last, off and on, for some 40 years. He was a month short of his 16th birthday when he signed up in May, 1940 - the Scots were still a militia unit then.
"Lome Scots was the Peel, Dufferin and Halton regiment. They had companies in just about every town in the three counties," Art says.
Art was in "C" Company, the unit for Milton, Acton and Georgetown. "A" Company was for Long Branch and Port Credit; "B" for Oakville and Burlington; "D" for Orangeville, Shelburne and Erin. Headquarters Company was in Brampton.
"To get into the militia at that time wasn't too hard. Then when we were mobilized for active service we just raised our age a couple of years. You had to be 19 to go overseas. At that time it wasn't too hard if you went directly from the militia to the Army to get in without a birth certificate."
Quite a few other underage Miltonians accompanied him when the unit left Hamilton for overseas June 15, 1941. Others who were under 19 were Harvey Brush, Charlie Gervais, Victor Homewood, William Noble, Dune Patterson and Elmer Zimmerman. The "old" soldiers were John Arnold, Lome Black, Maxie Black, William "Pinky" Coxe, Gordon Downs, Hughie Evans, Andrew Graham, John Graham, Morley Harbottle, Eddie Jones, Leslie Kelman, Lionel Muddle, Jack Stephenson and Mervin Timbers.
Three did not come back. Lome Black, who later served with the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, was killed near Calais; Lionel Muddle drowned when a troopship was torpedoed on the way to Italy and "Pinky" Coxe was machine gunned by an enemy aircraft in Sicily.
These 21 local soldiers were among more than 300 Lome Scots who boarded the train for the east coast. Next day they broke the trip at Quebec City with a route march to the Plains of Abraham, where the British forces defeated the French in the crucial 1759 battle. They arrived in Halifax mid-aftemoon June 17 and an hour later were aboard the troopship Andes. Among the thousands in the Lome Scots contingent was Captain Frederick Tilston, who would win the Victoria Cross in March 1945 in the Hochwald Forest. By then he was an officer in the Essex Scottish Regiment.
The Lome Scots had four days to settle in before heading out on a nine-day crossing to Greenoch. On the fifth day eight British destroyers met them to complete the convoy of six troopships, 12 destroyers, two battleships and numerous merchant vessels. They were to experience no trouble from enemy submarines.
Art arrived at Camp Bordern in southern England July 3rd and a few weeks afterwards moved to Cove, about 12 miles from Aldershot.
"The Lome Scots were sent over as a defence platoon," Art says, "and that meant we were on guard duty at dozens of Corps, Division and Brigade headquarters. We also provided a lot of the transport drivers for the different headquarters. We went wherever the Army went into Dieppe with the Second Division, into Sicily and Italy with the First and Fifth Divisions and into Normandy on D-Day."
Art describes his training as "typical" for the infantry. This included weapons training as well as instruction in various types of poisonous gases and handling of incendiary bombs. The Germans were dropping a lot of incendiaries on British targets.
Art, however, did not have to call on this type of training; he was assigned to an administrative job. He started out as an orderly room runner; soon he became a regular F, art of the orderly room staff. After that his training, except for occasional field exercises, dealt with Company administration and orderly room procedure. In 1942 more than 1600 Lome Scots were brought together for an exercise at Sheffield Park near Hastings.
The training, of course, didn't include keeping a diary a definite "no-no" for service people. That was Art's own' idea.
"I knew I wasn't supposed to do it. But I didn't hide under the bed or anything various people saw me writing there were no terrible repercussions. The worst that happened was that he got careless in 1943 and lost everything for the first eight months of that year. “
"From 1941 until 1943 we didn't have to worry about too many reinforcements the Canadian Army wasn't in action except for Dieppe. After the invasion of Sicily we had to start looking for more reinforcements."
In the spring of 1944 when the build-up began for D Day Art's unit was moved north to Cawthorn, near Barnsley in Yorkshire. All the facilities in southern England were needed for forces preparing to invade France. Art saw a great deal of the British Isles during his four and a half years overseas. It started within ten days of landing in Scotland - Art and Ed Zimmerman headed for Dundee on their landing leave.
After being stationed briefly in Manchester with the Postal Corps for the 1941 Christmas rush he made that city one of his favourite haunts. He returned often to stay with a family of four Smith sisters who had provided him his original Christmas billet. He kept in touch with the sisters for some years after the war. All are now dead.
On one of his visits to Manchester he was best man for Hughie Evans who married a Manchester woman and settled there after the war. He also spent countless weekends in London; on one visit he saw the Canadian Army show "The Kit Bags." He also served briefly at Canadian Army Headquarters in London. While there he saw some horribly graphic photos of the Dieppe disaster. These were not seen by the public until long after the war ended.
Another favourite town was Paisley, Scotland, where a former Oakville family - the Robertsons - had settled. Bill Robertson was a pipe major with the Oakville band and later played for both the Burlington and Halton Police pipe bands. The Robertsons returned to Oakville after the war.
With the end of the war in early May most service people had time to relax. But for Art life became a bit more hectic. He moved several times during the month and on May 30 his group flew to Belgium in Stirling bombers. He has fond memories of the Third Division's victory parade June 6 in Utrecht. Art and other members of the Lome Scots lined the street and got a front-row view of the goings-on.
In early July the unit was on the move again 125 miles through Holland on bren gun carriers. Then it was into Germany, moving from one barracks to another for several weeks. He got used to moving, Art says, and it wasn't much of a chore since all his belongings could be stuffed into two kit bags.
In mid-August as a prelude to coming home he transferred to the Highland Light Infantry of the Guelph area, in Zeist, Holland. He remembers a huge celebration in town to celebrate the Dutch queen's birthday, August 31. Two days later the 2nd Division put on a fireworks display.
By mid-September things were winding down for Art's unit. He moved to Nijmegen where he met Wilf Wilson and Charlie Pearson, who were also on their way home. They left Nijmegen September 17 and two days later arrived in Farnborough North camp, just in time to start nine days' leave, including visits to Manchester, Glasgow and Paisley.
When he got back to Farnborough Art learned that Neil McNabb, a Lome Scot from Acton and an overseas chum, had been killed in a train wreck just outside Manchester. Neil was on his last leave. Art left Britain in late October in the Queen Elizabeth on a four-day crossing to Halifax. The vessel also carried many war brides and lots of babies; Art believes diaper washing contributed to the water rationing.
There was a mix-up at the end of the trip. The Red Cross had told Art his parents would be waiting at Hamilton. But while the train was stopped at Toronto, Dick Clement, a Milton soldier, rushed aboard to tell Art his mother, father and sister were waiting a few yards away.
Art served throughout the war as a private. But he had some advantages that most privates did not enjoy. For example he received trade's pay, which gave him a nickel more than a corporal received and, Art says, without the responsibility He recalls that at the end of the war his pay was $1.75 a day. A private without trade's pay earned $1.50.
As a clerk he also enjoyed better billets than other privates. It was also nice to miss morning parades and the shaving line-ups. In the orderly room he got to know the sergeants, the sergeant major and the officers. Since they knew him they would overlook the occasional misdemeanor.
When Art arrived home at age 21 and was discharged (Dec. 1945) after almost five years overseas he thought he was saying goodbye to the Lome Scots. But things turned out quite differently.
After seven years in "retirement," he rejoined the militia regiment and spent 29 years as a drummer in the pipe band. In 1960 the band played at the Edinburgh Tattoo. Another highlight was the presentation of the regiment's new colours at Conn Smythe's farm in Caledon. This event was held in conjunction with the International Plowing Match. He finally retired from the Scots at age 58.
In 1954 Art started work with Ontario Steel Products in Milton - it later became Rockwell International and remained with the firm until his retirement 32 years later.