Robert Cooper. J.P.. played a part in several important events in the history of the Club.
The first such event was in 1907, when as President he entertained the teams to lunch in the annual match between Bexley and Kent Club and Ground. (Club and Ground teams were a mixture of young professionals, amateurs and seasoned professionals.) The particular interest in this match was that the Kent side included Frank Woolley. then only 20 years of age but already showing the skills which would make him one of Kent and England's finest players.
By 1913 Mr Cooper owned the ground and in that year he organised a match between a team raised by him and one raised by another well-known resident, Mr Arthur G. North. The remarkable thing about this match was that Dr. W. G. Grace, the most famous cricketer of all time played in it. He turned out for North's XI and although aged 64, opened the innings and scored 54. He is reported to have remarked what a pretty ground it was, to the person sitting next to him at lunch.
In 1914, when the Club was in one of its regular financial crises of those times, and a motion had been passed at the A.G.M. that it should disband, he stepped in to save the day by buying the Club lock, stock and barrel for £30 to enable it to pay off its debts.
Mr Cooper was a director of a number of companies, mostly involved with home and foreign railways. The family home was Spring Lawn. 88 North Cray Road. Mr and Mrs Cooper lost a son in the first World War; they gave a large endowment to the Bexley Cottage Hospital (now the Upton Road Day Hospital) in his memory. Robert Cooper was a churchwarden at St. Mary's for thirty years.