Margaret Isobel Cooper

Margaret Cooper (née Perkin), affectionately known as Peggy, was born in Shillong to Sir Athol Owen Perkin, Inspector-general of police at Odissa, and his wife, Lady Marion.[1] She had three younger siblings; one brother became squadron leader No. 9 Squadron RAF, another led the 19th Punjab regiment at the Battle of Wadi Akarit, and her sister Beryl joined the Intelligence Corps.[1] At the age of five years Cooper was sent to live with grandparents in England, where she completed her early education at Oxford High School.[1]

Cooper returned to India in 1934, and married Lieutenant Colonel R.A.B. Cooper of the East Yorkshire Regiment who was awarded an OBE for his work during the Muzaffarpur earthquake.[1]

In 1941, based in Quetta, Cooper served the Women's Auxiliary Corps (India) (WAC(I).[1] In September 1943, she was appointed Lieutenant Colonel, the regional commander responsible for recruiting women in Indian naval offices.[1] The role led to becoming the Chief Officer and Deputy Director of WRINS, appointed by Admiral John Henry Godfrey, then flag officer commanding the Royal Indian Navy (RIN).[2] Together they planned an active campaign to recruit women from across British India for service in the RIN.[2] It proved popular with middle and upper-class Indian women and most were generally very young; just out of school or in college.[2] Cooper wrote in 1945 that "for the Indian girls it was the experience of a life time and broadened their outlook considerably – helping towards emancipation".[2][3] She explained that "as two-thirds of the women who enrolled were Indian, two styles of uniforms were developed, one consisting of a white sari with blue border, to suit the graceful Indian girls, and, for the British and Anglo-Indians, an attractive uniform based on that of the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS).[2] She contributed to the introduction of the publication Wrins and How They Served.[2] In addition to recruitment and regulations she was responsible for the welfare, training and housing of WRINS.[1] According to Cooper's writings, in order to do this she travelled over 55,500 miles, chiefly by air, to naval bases across India.[1] According to Godfrey, most of those she recruited to WRINS were Indian so that by the end of 1945 "43% of the officers and 77% of the Wrins were Indian, and among the junior officers 80% were Indian".[2]

Serving WRINS, Cooper stayed in Delhi, where she would have been among General Wavell, General Claude Auchinleck, Cecil Beaton, Peter Fleming and Ian Fleming.[1] In April 1945, she accompanied Second Officer Kalyani Sen to the UK, where they visited A.T.S. establishments.[4]

In 1946, she left the naval service and rejoined her husband in England and worked recruiting for MI6 until 1948, when she moved to Austria.[1] In 1949, she returned to England, where she settled in Camberley, Surrey, until 1959, when she moved to Malta with her husband.[1] In retirement, she settled in France, and then in Javea, Spain, with her second husband Lieutenant Colonel J.P. de Skipwith.[1] Following his death in 1981 she remained in Spain, and later made two return journeys to India with her daughter Carol in 2005 and 2013.[1] In October 2015, on her 100th birthday, Javea Golf Club, where she played golf, awarded her honorary membership and created the 'Peggy Skipwith Cup'.[1][5]

Cooper, then Peggy Skipwith, died on 7 December 2015, almost two months after her 100th birthday, and was survived by her sister, daughter, one daughter-in-law, one grandson, and a great-grandson.[1]

• Women's Royal Indian Naval Service (WRINS) on YouTube