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Helen Kate Cupper
Police Officer at the Women’s Police ServiceBiography
Information supplied through Research Project led by Nigel Crompton.
Name: Helen Kate Cupper
DoB: 29 December 1882
Place of birth: Paddington, London
Parents: Arthur and Eliza (nee Hoadley)
Parental Home: 5 Norfolk Crescent Mews, Paddington
Siblings: William Howard (1870), Eveline Eliza (1872), Arthur Hoadley (1874) Annie Marianne (1876), Victor (1877), Ethel Sarah (1878), Edgar Cecil (1887), Henry James (1889), Maud Agnes (1894)
Spouse: Never married
Date of Wedding: Not applicable
Children : None identified
Marital home(s) : Not applicable
Employment: Nurse/ domestic servant
1911 Census: Living at Redholme, Wrawby, Brigg, Lincs – Employed as Nurse by Harry Metcalfe Hett, local solicitor who had a sick child living at home
Date of death: 29 March 1970
Location: Orpington Hospital, Orpington, Kent. Cremated at Honor Oak Crematorium, Brockley Way, London
DoB: 29 December 1882
Place of birth: Paddington, London
Parents: Arthur and Eliza (nee Hoadley)
Parental Home: 5 Norfolk Crescent Mews, Paddington
Siblings: William Howard (1870), Eveline Eliza (1872), Arthur Hoadley (1874) Annie Marianne (1876), Victor (1877), Ethel Sarah (1878), Edgar Cecil (1887), Henry James (1889), Maud Agnes (1894)
Spouse: Never married
Date of Wedding: Not applicable
Children : None identified
Marital home(s) : Not applicable
Employment: Nurse/ domestic servant
1911 Census: Living at Redholme, Wrawby, Brigg, Lincs – Employed as Nurse by Harry Metcalfe Hett, local solicitor who had a sick child living at home
Date of death: 29 March 1970
Location: Orpington Hospital, Orpington, Kent. Cremated at Honor Oak Crematorium, Brockley Way, London
Gretna details
Name: Helen Kate Cupper
Clock No
Date joining: Not Known
Date leaving: Not Known
Addresses: Women’s Police Barracks No 1, Gretna
Rank on start: PC
Promotion: None located
Newspapers: None found
Career after: Mostly domestic service
1921 Census : In Canada during 1921Addresses after Gretna:
Culver Cottage, Littleham, Devon
Boxgrove School, Boxgrove Road, Guildford
18 Glebe Road, Bromley
Name: Helen Kate Cupper
Clock No
Date joining: Not Known
Date leaving: Not Known
Addresses: Women’s Police Barracks No 1, Gretna
Rank on start: PC
Promotion: None located
Newspapers: None found
Career after: Mostly domestic service
1921 Census : In Canada during 1921Addresses after Gretna:
Culver Cottage, Littleham, Devon
Boxgrove School, Boxgrove Road, Guildford
18 Glebe Road, Bromley
Additional information
Helen appears to have had little reason to join the police in WW1 as she spent most of her working life in ‘domestic service’, although she was working for a solicitor in 1911. By 1921, only Henry James, Helen’s youngest brother, was living in Marlow. During the Great War he served with the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry attaining the rank of Major. In 1928 he emigrated to USA, having lived in Michigan in 1920/early 1921, working for General Motors in Detroit. Unfortunately no travel details for Helen revisiting his brother and family have been found. Surrey Archive Centre, Woking, have a large collection of records relating to Boxgrove School including staff photos and details regarding employment, retirements, etc. This source will be investigated at a later date along with other records relating to Surrey and Gretna.
