lived in Cumberland until he began as a pupil of Durham School. In 1920 when Cooper married Irene Florence Clements (21 July 1893 – Chelsea 1989), Barnes Wallis was his best man. In 1973, Sir Barnes Wallis returned to Cooper's Chelsea studio for their golden wedding anniversary. Cooper was nicknamed "Peter the Painter" by his father-in-law, and his friends then followed suit, calling him "Peter" thereafter. Cooper and his wife had a son Peter C. Cooper (born 1925), who married and moved to the United States, and they visited him on eight occasions during the 1960s. Peter Cooper became an artist, and the director of the Grosse Pointe Art Gallery, Detroit, Michigan. On Twelfth Night 1947 at Monte Carlo's Sporting Club, a party was held for a number of celebrities; Cooper and his wife Irene were photographed there. In 1951, they were living at 12 Jubilee Place, London S.W.3. That year they took ship from Colombo, Ceylon, to London, Cooper having executed paintings in Ceylon, including A Ceylonese Lady. Due to redevelopment, Cooper and his wife were obliged to move from Jubilee Place, so they came to Oakley Gardens, Chelsea, in 1970. Cooper died at home at 4 Oakley Gardens, Chelsea, London, on 11 May 1974, and was cremated on 16 May 1974 at Putney Vale Cemetery. He left £4,434 (). Character Cooper was described in The Times as "a generous man of great charm, a wonderful raconteur and well known to a wide circle of people in the art world". According to his son, Peter, Cooper "generally looked more like a retired British colonel than an artist, and always dressed to the nines, even in his studio". In 1922, the Daily Mirror quoted his opinion on Modernism: He is unashamedly old-fashioned. He paints what he sees and dismisses more modern trends with a wave of the hand ... Though of the same generation as Picasso, he dislikes all this rubbish ... Picasso was good during – what do you call it – the Blue Period. But then, when he started doing all these things ... Mind you, he was never great, even during the Blue Period. The Chelsea News and General Advertiser said that Cooper was "one of Chelsea's oldest and best loved artists". War service During the First World War, Cooper served in the Artists Rifles (28th County of London Battalion), and then was commissioned as a captain