‘MY GREAT GRANDAD AND HIS BROTHER WERE VICTORIAN POLICEMEN’
When WDYTYA? Magazine reader Peter Cooley discovered two policemen on his family tree after generations of ‘ag labs’, he was very excited. However, researching their lives, he discovered the harsh reality of being a bobby on the beat – and the highs and lows their families faced after they left the force.
“After the birth of our last child, Alison, my wife and I realised how little we knew about our families – that’s what initially sparked our interest,” explains Peter. “We started with the Cooley surname.” His sister Jean had already got back as far as their great grandfather, John. “With a little more research, I was able to go back another generation. That’s what got me hooked!”
John Cooley was born in March 1829 in Brill, Buckinghamshire. He married Mary Ann Shirley in August 1851 in the parish church at Launton, Oxfordshire. On the 1851 census, John is listed as an
