Thomas Thornville Cooper

The eighth son of John Ibbetson Cooper, a coalfitter and shipowner, he was born on 13 September 1839, at Bishopwearmouth, County Durham.

[2] It involved at that time traversing the Panthay kingdom, the site of a Muslim insurgency, with its capital at Dali.

[1][3] Cooper therefore struck southwards, following the valley of the Lancang Jiang and reached Zegu on its western bank.

This was the most westerly point that had been explored by Westerners starting from China, in the region of the major rivers north of Bhamo.

He was compelled, therefore, to return to Weixi, where he was imprisoned and threatened with death by the civil authorities: he was suspected of being in touch with the Panthay rebels.

On this journey he left Sadiya in October of that year, and passing up the line of the Brahmaputra, through the Mishmi country, reached Prun, a village about twenty miles from Rima.

[2] Shortly after his return to England, Cooper was appointed by the India Office to accompany the Panthay mission which had visited London to the frontier of Yunnan.

Ill-health then obliged him to return almost immediately to England, where he was attached to the political department of the India Office.

[2] In 1876 Cooper was sent to India with despatches and presents to the viceroy in connection with the imperial durbar of Delhi, and was subsequently reappointed political agent at Bhamo.