Frederick Cooper (13 March 1852 – 21 July 1935) was an English professional racing cyclist and subsequently partner in a bicycle manufacturing business.
It is not known what led Cooper to take up professional cycling but his first recorded appearance in this capacity was in a velocipede race at Chesterfield in June 1870.
His favoured distance was one mile and he made frequent bids for the title of all-England one-mile champion.
His first attempt was in November 1870 at the Molineux Stadium in Wolverhampton where he won his initial heat but appears to have been defeated in the final.
[10] In the 1860s the normal type of machine was the velocipede and it was this that Cooper and other cyclists used in the early days of competitive racing; but following its introduction in the early 1870s, the high-wheeler (‘penny-farthing’ or ‘ordinary’) with its large-diameter front wheel and hence greater speed, became the normal machine for racing.
Keen defeated him for the one-mile championship in September 1879 and Cooper does not appear to have made any attempt to recover the title.
During the 1890s Cooper showed a particular interest in the aquacycle or hydrocycle, a kind of scull powered by a bicycle mechanism rather than by oars.
Cooper's interest probably dated from when, some time between 1881 and 1891, he moved to a house close to the river Thames in Long Ditton in Surrey.
Cooper married his first wife, Ellen Clarke at St John's church, Park in Sheffield on 6 November 1874.
She died in childbirth or very shortly afterwards after only three months of marriage on 9 February 1875. Cooper then left Sheffield to live in London and his surviving daughter was brought up by her maternal grandparents.
By 1891 Cooper had moved to Long Ditton where he lived at 8 Cholmley Villas, close to the south bank of the river Thames.