FRED COOPER - The Boer War Volunteers from Seaham

Fred Cooper was born in Seaham in the 1950’s. He spent much of his childhood living in the pit village and community of Seaham Colliery. As a child he was enthralled listening to his parents and grandparents talking about their exploits during World War 1 and 2. He played with his school friends in the Anderson air-raid shelter at the bottom of the garden proudly wearing his Dad’s medals and pretending to fight the enemy. After all, it was only five years since his Dad returned from World War Two. As he grew up, he began to realise that the two World Wars had affected everyone and touched every part of life in Seaham as in other towns in the north-east of England. Later in life he became interested in family and social history and it occurred to him that there were no local history books about the war his great-grandparents and their siblings fought and lived through – The Boer War. This book is not a detailed campaign history of the Boer War although it does provide the reader with the basic facts to explain the progress of the war. His main purpose in writing this book is to record the contributions made by, and the real-life experiences, of men from Seaham during the conflict. The people of Seaham need to remember the courage, bravery and exploits of the forgotten Volunteers from their town who fought and died when their country called them to arms.