Dictionary of Indian Biography/Cooper, Thomas Thornville
COOPER, THOMAS THORNVILLE (1839–1878)
Traveller : son of John J. Cooper : born Sep. 13, 1839 : educated at Bishop-wearmouth. When he was on a voyage to Australia for his health, the crew mutinied : he went to India, 1859: joined the firm of Arbuthnot & Co. at Madras : travelled to Rangoon and on to Shanghai : fought against the Taiping rebels : in 1868, he tried to travel from Hankow, through Tibet, to India, was stopped at Batang and near Weisi and imprisoned, and, via the Yangtsze, reached Hankow in Nov. 1868: in 1869, trying to reach China from Sadiya in Assam was stopped at Prun. The India Office employed him with the Panthay mission to London : he was then made Political Agent at Bhamo : returned home for his health : attached to the India Office : reappointed in 1876 to Bhamo, and was murdered there by one of his own guards, April 24, 1878. He wrote Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce in Pigtail and Petticoats, 1871 : and Mishmee Hills, 1873.