Surgeon Lieutenant-Commander Bruce Cooper (22 November 1914 – 3 December 2010) was a native of Castle Eden, England.

William Albert Bruce Cooper was born on 22 November 1914 in Castle Eden, County Durham, England.

The son of a physician, he received his education at Henry Smith Grammar School in Hartlepool, County Durham.

In one such case, he had to maneuver half a mile in a tunnel, eventually rescuing a man pinned under a rockfall by amputating his lower extremity.

The vessel had been disguised as RFA Prunella, and its survivors had been at sea for almost a week in a lifeboat after the Q-ship had been torpedoed on 21 June 1940 off the island Ushant in the English Channel.

[1][2][5] During shore leave in 1941, the physician was recruited for a covert operation by George Murray Levick (1876–1956), the explorer who had been part of the support crew for Captain Robert Scott (1868–1912) in Antarctica.

Levick and five other men of the crew survived their eight-month trip to Cape Evans, which included an entire winter spent in a snow cave, eating seal blubber and penguin meat.

Cooper resided at the Rock Hotel; he would go through its front entrance in the uniform of a surgeon-lieutenant of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and exit through the back in the attire of a sergeant of the British Army.

During their off-duty time, the team was allowed to go into Spain, and Cooper recalls meeting athlete and actor Buster Crabbe during his stay in Gibraltar.

[9][10] Dr Cooper met Sergeant Major Pete Jackson of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment and Jim Crone in November 2006, and had the opportunity to relate his memories of Operation Tracer.

[2][11] In October 2008, he returned to Gibraltar and confirmed that the Stay Behind Cave discovered in 1997 was the same covert chamber that had been constructed for his use and that of his five colleagues.

[14] Retired Surgeon Lieutenant-Commander Bruce Cooper was widowed in 2001, and died on 3 December 2010 at age 96, leaving behind a son and two daughters.