Editing Tommy Cooper (section)

==Early life==
Thomas Frederick Cooper was born on 19&nbsp;March 1921, at 19 Llwyn-On Street in [[Caerphilly]], [[Glamorgan]].<ref name="exmem">{{cite web|title=Tommy Cooper |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112114320/http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/_people/cooper.php |url=http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/_people/cooper.php |date=22 January 2008 |archive-date=12 January 2012 |website=ExeterMemories.co.uk |url-status=live}}</ref> He was delivered by the woman who owned the house in which the family were lodging. His parents were Thomas H. Cooper, a [[Welsh people|Welsh]] recruiting sergeant in the [[British Army]] and later coal miner, and Catherine Gertrude (''née'' Wright), Thomas's English wife from [[Crediton]], Devon.<ref name="exmem" /><ref>GRO Register of Marriages: Dec 1919 11a 1538 Pontypridd – Thomas H. Cooper = Gertrude C. Wright.</ref>

To change from his mining role in Caerphilly, which could have had implications for his health, his father accepted the offer of a new job and the family moved to [[Exeter]], Devon, when Cooper was three. It was in Exeter that he acquired the [[West Country English|West Country accent]] that became part of his act.<ref name="BBC1">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3625301.stm |title=Anniversary of Tommy Cooper's death |work=BBC News |date=16 April 2004 |access-date=18 February 2015 |archive-date=25 April 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090425180854/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3625301.stm |url-status=live}}</ref> As an adult and on a visit to Wales to visit the house where he was born, Cooper was asked if he considered himself to be a [[Welsh people|Welshman]], to which he answered, "Well yes, my father's Welsh... and my mother's from Devon. Actually I was in Caerphilly and left here when I was about a year old, I was getting very serious with a girl", much to the amusement of the BBC interviewer and himself.<ref name=":0" />

When he was eight years old an aunt bought him a [[magic set]] and he spent hours perfecting the tricks.<ref>{{cite web|title=Tommy Cooper Biography|url=http://www.biographyonline.net/comics/tommy-cooper.html|access-date=20 November 2011|website=BiographyOnline.net}}</ref> In the 1960s his brother David (born 1930<!-- alive or dead? -->)<ref>GRO Register of Births: Se 1930 5b 60 St Thomas – David J. Cooper, mmn – Wright</ref> opened D. & Z. Cooper's Magic Shop at 249 High Street in [[Slough]], Buckinghamshire.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sopse.org.uk/ixbin/hixclient.exe?a=query&p=gateway&f=generic_objectrecord_postsearch.htm&_IXFIRST_=3652&_IXMAXHITS_=1&m=quick_sform&tc1=i&tc2=e&s=6_1o_IDUuQi|title=Shops along High Street, Slough, 1979|first=Reg|last=Harrison|website=SoPSE.org.uk}}</ref><ref name="BBC1" /> The shop later moved to [[Eastbourne]], East Sussex and was run by David's daughter Sabrina.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/news/end-of-an-era-as-eastbourne-magic-shop-to-disappear-forever-1128918|title=End of an era as Eastbourne magic shop to disappear forever|date=25 April 2017|website=Sussex World}}</ref> After leaving school, Cooper became a [[shipwright]] in [[Southampton]], Hampshire. In 1940 he was called up as a [[Trooper (rank)|trooper]] in the [[Royal Horse Guards]], serving for seven years. He joined [[Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein|Montgomery]]'s [[7th Armoured Division (United Kingdom)|Desert Rats]] in Egypt. Cooper became a member of a [[Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes]] (NAAFI) entertainment party, and developed an act around his [[Magic (illusion)|magic tricks]] interspersed with comedy. One evening in [[Cairo]], during a sketch in which he was supposed to be in a costume that required a [[pith helmet]], having forgotten the prop Cooper reached out and borrowed a [[Fez (hat)|fez]] from a passing waiter, which got huge laughs.<ref name="BBC2">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A2116496#footnote1 |title=Edited Guide Entry: Tommy Cooper – Just Like That |publisher=BBC |access-date=18 February 2015 |website=[[h2g2]] |date=23 January 2004 |id=Guide ID: A2116496 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040916160730/https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A2116496 |archive-date=16 September 2004 |url-status=dead}}</ref> He wore a fez when performing after that, the prop later being described as "an icon of 20th-century comedy".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/shortcuts/2016/dec/05/tommy-cooper-fez-much-more-than-prop|title=Just like hat! Why Tommy Cooper's fez was much more than a prop|first=Brian|last=Logan|date=5 December 2016|website=The Guardian|access-date=27 January 2018}}</ref>