Cooper baronets of Shenstone Court (1905)

[2] The family business, in which the first four baronets were heavily involved, was notable for the invention of insecticides related to veterinary products, today known as Sheep dip.

From 1852 throughout the remainder of the 19th century the Berkhamsted-based business expanded at considerable speed, the newly built factory taking every advantage of the new mechanical innovations of the day.

The factory had its own printing press producing labels of a complicated design in order to prevent the sheep dip being faked by the unscrupulous.

[16] Two years later in 1870 he founded his own practice in Tamworth Street, Lichfield, Staffordshire[7] Aged 43 Cooper inherited the family business from his uncle, and from 1885 to 1889 undertook a large scale expansion of the company.

A shrewd business man, he made investments in land worldwide and by 1913 owned 250,000 acres (1,000 km2) around the globe, and with mines in New Zealand, Rhodesia, and South Africa.

The new company Cooper, Mcdougall and Robertson became a household name in Britain due to its merchandise which included many everyday products from domestic aerosol insecticides to nonprescription medications for both animals and humans.

[6] This was an important if largely unlauded medical breakthrough, during World War I lice had contributed heavily to the death count.

[18] Sir Richard Ashmole Cooper had married Alice Elizabeth Priestland in 1900 [19] and the couple had purchased the Billington Manor estate in Bedfordshire.

Cooper's eldest son William, regularly raced there against well known and aristocratic names of the day such The Prince of Wales and Lord Rosebery.

Cooper - a member of the Carlton Club - was Chairman of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust and an agricultural advisor to the Governments of Kazakhstan and Albania.