CAPTAIN CHARLES W HOOPER

Remembering Captain C. W. Hooper

Every ANZAC Day, we at Prince Alfred College honour those of our Old Scholars who bravely served in War. We remember them with our Memorial Museum and our Assembly Hall is named ANZAC Hall in their honour.

Prince Alfred College Chronicle, September 1916

“Chas. W. Hooper (PAC 1898-1901) entered the school in 1898 as the holder of a Government exhibition. After a creditable course at school, he won a University scholarship, which enabled him to proceed to the Bachelor of Science degree. When war broke out, he was engaged in the assay office of the Wallaroo Smelting Company. His strong sense of duty impelled him to break up his home (Queen Street Norwood), and to leave his little son, at his country's call. He left our shores as Lieutenant in command of reinforcements to the 10th Battalion, with Lieut. Murray Fowler (PAC 1905-1914) as second in command, and has been on active service since June, 1915, in Gallipoli, Egypt, and France. He was promoted to Captain and has recently been killed in action in France. We cherish his memory as a soldier whom the school honours for his devoted, courageous service and sacrifice on her behalf.”

Murray Fowler finished his studies at Prince Alfred College in 1914. By 1915 he was on Active Service. He became a Major and was awarded the Military Cross. Fowler lived on to the age of 53 and continued to respond to the Call of Service, later serving during World War II. It is likely that Major Fowler was able to retain a collection of film and possibly the camera of Captain Hooper. The images identify scenes of WWI and include Captain Hooper, Major Fowler and other Prince Alfred College Old Scholars as well and Saints Old Scholars, who all served together. These photographs were donated to the State Library of South Australia.

At their recent visit to Adelaide for Adelaide Writer’s Week, author Chloe Hooper, great-granddaughter of Captain Hooper with her parents, Toby and Juliana Hooper, visited the State Library of South Australia to view the Collection of Photographs by Captain Hooper from Gallipoli and Lemnos. Toby and Juliana Hooper also visited us at the College. They viewed our archives of Captain Hooper and also our Memorial Museum, where Captain Hooper’s name is emblazoned on our honour boards dedicated to those Old Scholars who fell. They were thrilled to see the records and the honour boards as they didn’t know these things existed until their visit. The likeness between Captain Hooper and Toby Hooper was uncanny! Juliana kindly donated a separate image of Captain Hooper with Major Giles (both are also pictured in the State Library SA WWI album which can be viewed here).

Juliana told me she and Toby (grandson of Captain Hooper) were all still mystified why Captain Hooper’s schoolfriend Major Fowler would have kept the photos. She thought that perhaps his widow didn’t want them because they were so upsetting. It is known that the soldiers were banned from taking photos once they got to France. Much of their experience was censored. These haunting images are a fascinating window to the rarely seen past.

Chloe Hooper remarked

“It was profoundly moving looking through the album of Charles Hooper's photographs. Charles's son, my grandfather, was born after he'd left for war and they never met. I wonder if Charles took some of the pictures, hoping one day he'd be able to show his child what he'd seen overseas. The images, which begin in Cairo with a sightseeing air, shift in tone however, and by the time he was in Gallipoli, we catch something of the horror these young men faced. Being able to see what Charles saw, as if through the same lens, gave my father and me an uncanny sense of meeting and getting to know our forbear. Charles was killed the following year in France, and we're so grateful that this roll of film survived that carnage, so that we could glimpse the world from his point of view a century later. “

Fac Fortia et Patere

Kate Pulford 

College Archivist

Images acknowledgement State Library of South Australia, WWI Album of Captain Hooper PRG 546

Lt C W Hooper and all PAC Old Scholars on Lemnos 10th Infantry Battalion 1 December 1915 PRG 546 1 32
Lt. C.W. Hooper 10th Infantry All Old Scholars PAC on Lemnos. 1 December 1915. PRG 546_1_32 Standing: ? , ? , ? , Rogers, Sharland, Goddard, Rhodes, ? , Sitting: ? , Fowler, Hooper, Wilton, Hoggarth, Coffey. Lying: Jeffries, Rumball.
Lt C W Hooper 10th Infantry Cairo Zoo Egypt 1916 PRG 546 1 27
Lt. C.W. Hooper 10th Infantry Cairo Zoo. Egypt. 1916. PRG 546_1_27
Juliana and Toby Hooper Memorial Museum
These Nobly Striving Nobly Fell - Juliana Hooper with Toby Hooper descendant of Captain C W Hooper, in our Memorial Museum standing in front of the honour rolls of our fallen including the name, Hooper, C.W. Image Kate Pulford.
C Aptain Hooper honour board detail
Honour roll detail - Hooper, C.W. Image Kate Pulford
PRG 546 30
Officers, "B" Coy. 10th Inf, Lemnos. Standing: Henwood, Jacob, Hooper. Sitting: Coffey, Campbell. Taken on 2 December 1915 PRG 546_30
PRG 546 29
Officers on Lemnos who were in 10th Bn. Standing: Padre, McCann, Minnagall, Magenis, Hooper, Henwood, Armitage, Coffey, Hamilton, Loutit, Fowler, Moule, Leane, Doc. Sitting: Giles, Jacob, Beevor, Lorenzo, Redburg, Shaw. Lying: Campbell, Churchill Smith, Blackburn, Clarke, Wilton, Inglis, Harneman. Taken on 1st December 1915 PRG 546/29
Major Giles and old scholar Captain Charles William Hooper WW1
Major Giles and Captain Hooper. Prince Alfred College Archives.