Frank Cooper was born in December 1922 in Droylsden. His father, Valentine, was a commercial traveller and his mother Wynnefred, a teacher. The family were Moravians, although he later relinquished his childhood faith. He spent time at various boarding schools but came to MGS in 1937 for two years on the Classical Side. He left MGS in 1939 to start accountancy training, but in 1941 he enlisted in the RAF. He received his commission in 1942 and undertook pilot training in the U.S. His operational service started in 1943 as a spitfire pilot in the Italian campaign. In 1944 he was shot down by anti-aircraft fire and crash-landed behind enemy lines, being reported as missing. He was captured by the Germans but managed to escape and make it back to allied lines. He remained in the RAF until demobilisation in 1946, completing two tours and attaining the position of flight commander.
On his return home, he read Modern History at Pembroke College, Oxford, graduating with a third in 1948. Oxford was where he met his wife, Peggie Claxton, who was reading English. After graduating, he joined the Air Ministry as a civil servant. Rapid promotion followed rapid promotion and he held numerous positions within the Air Ministry included a period in Cyprus setting up Sovereign Base Area Administration and involvement in the Suez Crisis. In 1964, the Air Ministry merged with the Admiralty and the War Office to form the Ministry of Defence. Cooper held positions as Assistant Under Secretary of State and Deputy Under Secretary of State in the new ministry.
In the 1970s, Cooper moved first to the Northern Ireland office, and later back to the Ministry of Defence, both as Permanent Under Secretary of State. In the former role, under Willie Whitelaw, Cooper broke new ground by attempting to conduct talks with the Provisional IRA to achieve a political solution to the Troubles. It was in the latter role that Cooper played a pivotal role during the Falklands War in 1982. He developed a reputation for a brisk, no-nonsense approach, and during his time at the Ministry of Defence shrunk the size of the department in order to upgrade equipment. Despite this, he was popular and became known as “The Squaddie’s Friend”. The scaling back of a naval presence in the Atlantic under Cooper led the Argentinians to believe that the British were indifferent to their territory in the region.
In the early stages of the Falklands War, Cooper was invited to Mrs. Thatcher’s flat where she asked the question, “Frank, how do you run a war?“. Their conversation led to the creation of a “war cabinet” that would meet regularly with a simple chain of command. However, as the war progressed, Cooper became a somewhat controversial figure. He was accused of deliberately misleading British journalists in weekly briefings in order to in turn deceive the Argentinians. Information would be given, under instructions not to publish it in the press. The inevitable reporting of this information was used by Cooper as a method of confusing the enemy. Magnus Linklater, a journalist with The Sunday Times wrote, “We were all told, in strictest confidence, that there would be no landing on San Carlos by the task force. ‘You should be thinking in terms of a series of hit-and-run raids,’ said Sir Frank. This snippet duly appeared on most front pages. Next day the task force landed. ‘I don’t know if it confused the enemy,’ complained one defence correspondent, ‘but it sure as hell confused the rest of us.‘” At a subsequent enquiry, Cooper explained that ”We aimed throughout not to lie, but there were occasions when we did not tell the whole truth and did not correct things that were being misread.”
Cooper’s service during the Falklands led to an appointment to Privy Council upon his retirement in 1982. From 1983 he was appointed to a number of directorships of companies such as Babcock International, Rothschilds and Morgan Crucible. This too proved controversial, due to the speed with which he jumped from the civil service into the private sector.
He kept in touch with his old school, serving as Senior Steward of the Old Boys Dinner in 1978. He also became Vice President of the Foundation Bursary Appeal. Outside of his work, Cooper had a happy family life with his wife Peggy, and the couple had three sons and a daughter.
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