OBITUARY

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23087, 1 August 1940, Page 8

OBITUARY

♦ MISS FRANCES L. COOPER After an illness of several months, the death occurred yesterday of Miss Frances L. Cooper, well knowil throughout New Zealand as a worker for women’s organisations and for the St; John Ambulance. She was one of the three women with the longest record of service with the St. John Ambulance brigade in Christchurch, and was this year promoted by the Order of St. John of Jerusalem an officer of the order. Miss Cooper joined the brigade in 1914, and did much valuable work both for the brigade and for the Red Cross Society during the last war. In 1918, during the influenza epidemic, she was one of those who responded to the call for nurses at the Christchurch Hospital, and her services were suitably recognised later by the hospital authorities. From 1920 to 1925 she was corps secretary of the brigade, and seven years later was appointed distinct supervising officer of nursing cadet divisions. The success of her work in this direction resulted in the cadet organisation in the district being made

a basis for the establishment of similar units throughout the Dominion. As a mark of appreciation of her services she was elected a serving sister of the order, the insignia being presented to her by Lord Jellicoe during his visit to Christchurch in 1924. Miss Cooper, however, did not confine herself to ambulance work. For three years she was Dominion secretary of the New Zealand National Council of Women; she waS the first secretary of the Christchurch Business and Professional Women’s Club, and later its president; for many years she was secretary of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association and its women’s association, and secretary of the New Zealand Industries Fair. For several years she was secretary of the North Canterbury orovincial executive of. the Women’s Division of the Farmers’ Union, and was one of the earliest members of the Secretaries’ Institute in Christchurch, for some time one of its only women members. In city business circles she was also well known as an accountant. During recent years, in the capacity of secretary of the management committee of the Cholmondeley Memorial Children’s Home. Miss Cooper did much valuable work, not only in reorganisation. but in interviewing parents of children in poor circumstances and arranging for them to have a health-giving holidav at the home. The executive of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association last evening passed a motion of condolence with the relatives of Miss Cooper. The chairman, Mr S. L. Wright, said that Miss Cooper had given the association invaluable service over a period of more than 10 years.