| Administrative History | Alfred Cecil Cooper was born in 1882. He was ordained into the priesthood in 1907, and went out as a missionary priest to the Diocese of Korea in 1908. He was consecrated as Bishop of the Diocese in 1931. Following the liberation of Korea from the Japanese at the end of the Second World War, he returned to Korea and laboured to rebuild the Church. In 1950 he refused to leave the Diocese when the Communist forces occupied the Capital (Seoul), and he was taken into captivity in North Korea. He was forced to undertake the 'Death March', when all Communist prisoners were marched north as U.N. troops pushed towards the Yalu River. Bishop Cooper spent two and a half years as a prisoner in North Korea, and was finally repatriated in April 1953. He returned to Korea in October 1953. He retired in 1954. He died on 17 Dec 1964.
Source: Compiled from records of the Korean Mission |
| Custodial History | These papers were acquired with the records of the Korean Mission which were deposited in 1987 and 1993 with the Selly Oak Colleges Library. It is likely that Bishop Cooper's papers had been deposited with the Korean Mission by Rose Cooper. The papers were then transferred to the Orchard Learning Resources Centre which was opened in 1997 following the merger of the Selly Oak Colleges Library and the Westhill College Library. In 2000, the custodianship of all archive collections held at the Orchard Learning Resources Centre was transferred to the University of Birmingham |