2nd Lieutenant, 14th Battalion Manchester Regiment attached 11th Battalion.
Killed in action, 26th September 1916, age 20.
Remembered on the Thiepval Memorial, France.
Student of chemistry.
Joseph was born in 1896 at Bury to James and Mary Ann Cooper. He attended Radcliffe Congregational School and Stand Grammar School where he was a popular student, a good scholar and a notable athlete. He entered Manchester University in 1914 to study chemistry.
In November 1914 Joseph joined the University Officer Training Corps and was gazetted to the Manchester Regiment on 25th March 1915. He served in Egypt, Gallipoli and France and was much loved by his sub-ordinates and highly praised by his superiors. He was recommended for the Military Cross and mentioned in despatches. On 26th September 1916 he was leading a bombing raid, near Moquet Farm on the Somme, when he was shot through the heart by a sniper and killed instantly.