The fourth of the twelve children and the eldest son of the Rev Samuel Levick Cooper, the elder brother of Sir Astley Cooper and grandson of Dr Cooper, Vicar of Great Yarmouth. Born in Great Yarmouth on September 2nd, 1792, he went to school at Bungay under the Rev Robert Page, and afterwards to the Grammar School at Yarmouth. In 1805 he was sent to sea as a midshipman in the Stately (64 guns) by the interest of Admiral Russell, then the Port Admiral at Yarmouth, and was placed under the care and instruction of the first lieutenant, who afterwards became Admiral Fisher. Nostalgia combined with sea-sickness soon made him give up all idea of becoming a sailor, and he was sent to school for the next two years at North Walsham, Norfolk, where the Rev Mr Spurdens was head master. A visit to his uncle, Sir Astley Cooper, led him to desire a medical training, and he entered the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital as a pupil under Edward Rigby and Edward Colman, P M Martineau, who was a brilliant operator, being his teacher in surgery. He came to London in 1811, entered the United Borough Hospitals, lodged with Joseph Hodgson (qv) in King Street, Cheapside, and became his uncle's pupil. On May 20th, 1812, he joined the Ordnance Medical Department as Temporary Assistant Surgeon, becoming 2nd Assistant Surgeon on December 2nd, 1812, and retiring on half pay on April 1st, 1816. During this period he was present at the battles of Vittoria, the Pyrenees, Nivelle, Orthez, and the sieges of St Sebastian and Toulouse. In 1814 he went to Quebec on the secret expedition, and for these services he was decorated. Returning to England in 1815, he found that his brother Henry had been apprenticed to Sir Astley Cooper, and as such apprenticeship usually carried the right of succession at the Hospital, Bransby determined to abandon surgery. He proceeded to Edinburgh with the intention of taking a degree in medicine. During his short residence there he was elected President of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh, and married Miss Keeling, a daughter of John Keeling, of Broxbourne, Herts, by whom he had a son who died before his father. Henry Cooper having died unexpectedly of fever in February, 1816, Bransby returned to London, and it was arranged that with his wife he should live in his uncle's house, for Mrs Astley Cooper disliked London and preferred to live in the country house at Gadesbridge. From June, 1818, until 1827 this arrangement was continued to the mutual advantage of uncle and nephew. Bransby assisted in the dissecting-room, where there was a class of 400 students, and in February, 1823, was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy conjointly with John Flint South (qv) on the resignation of Charles Aston Key (qv). Astley Cooper was ceasing to teach, and it became a part of the duty of the demonstrators to deliver some of the anatomical lectures for him. The appointment of Bransby Cooper was made by Sir Astley Cooper without previous consultation with his colleagues, and brought to a head a long-simmering dissension between the governors of Guy's and St Thomas's Hospital. An acrimonious dispute took place, and it was decided by the autocratic Treasurer - Benjamin Harrison - that Guy's Hospital should be separated from St Thomas's, with which it had hitherto been joined for administrative and teaching purposes. A new medical school thus came into existence and Bransby Cooper took the Chair of Anatomy, was elected Assistant Surgeon in 1825, becoming full Surgeon in the same year, and retaining office until his death in 1853. He lectured on surgery in the medical school and was also Consulting Surgeon to the Western Infirmary. The Lancet of March 29th, 1828, contained a highly sensational description, written by James Lambert, a surgeon in general practice at Walworth, of a lithotomy operation performed by Bransby Cooper in the theatre of Guy's Hospital. The account was written in a most unfriendly spirit, and was indirectly an attack upon Sir Astley Cooper. Bransby Cooper brought an action for libel against Thomas Wakley as proprietor of the Lancet. The trial began at Westminster in the Court of Queen's Bench on Dec. 12th, 1828, and became a cause célèbre in the course of which this squib was quoted:- "When Cooper's 'nevey' cut for stone His toils were long and heavy: The patient quicker parts has shown He soon cut Cooper's 'nevey'." The jury found for Bransby Cooper with damages assessed at £100, but it left a lasting mark upon him, and throughout the remainder of his life he was unduly emotional. He was elected FRS on June 18th, 1829. At the Royal College of Surgeons he was Arris and Gale Professor of Human Anatomy and Surgery from 1841-1845, a Member of the Council 1848-1853, and Hunterian Orator in 1853. He died suddenly in the Athenaeum Club on August 18th, 1853, from a large haemorrhage due to ulceration at the base of the tongue, and was buried at St Martin's-in-the-Fields. There is a fine portrait by Eddis which was engraved by Simmonds. A copy of the mezzotint hangs in the Library of the Royal College of Surgeons. There is also a lithograph by J Bizo. Bransby Cooper paid the penalty of his relationship to Sir Astley Cooper, whom he idolized. He would perhaps have done better, and he would certainly have been happier, had he remained an army surgeon. He was warm-hearted, sympathetic, and jocular, but had little confidence in himself. He never had a large practice, and towards the end of his life interested himself in the chemistry of the human body, analysing animal fluids and calculi. As a man he was well made, muscular, a good oarsman and pugilist, and a good shot. It is told of him that, when Demonstrator of Anatomy, he came to the rescue of his pupils during a fight between St Bartholomew's and Guy's, and thrashed the enemy. On another occasion he was unable to operate because he had rowed himself from Westminster Bridge to the Hospital and felt his hand was unsteady. He was beloved of his pupils and was never referred to otherwise than as Bransby. Publications: *A Treatise on Ligaments*, 4to, 18 plates, fol., 1825; 2nd ed., London, 1827; 4th ed., 1836. In this work Cooper is said to have discovered more ligaments than actually exist. *Lectures on Anatomy, interspersed with Practical Remarks*, 4 vols., 8vo, 13 plates, London (published by the author), 1829-32 ; again, London, 1830-5. This work is said to have been the first in this country to contain lithographs. *The Anatomy of the Human Bones*, comprised in a series of lithographic drawings carefully taken from nature and arranged for the purpose of illustrating the Lecture, by Henry J. Shrapnell, fol., 30 plates, London, 1833. *Surgical Essays; the Result of Clinical Observations made at Guy's Hospital*, 8vo, 4 plates, London, 1833; republished in German at Weimar in 1837. *The Life of Sir Astley Cooper, interspersed with sketches from his Notebooks of Distinguished Contemporary Characters*, 2 vols., 8vo, a portrait, London, 1843. This is an unbalanced work, which might have been turned into a philosophical history of contemporary surgery as well as of a great surgeon's career. *Lectures on Osteology, including the Ligaments which connect the Bones of the Human Skeleton*, 8vo, 10 plates, London, 1844. "Observations on Lithotomy," 8vo, nd; reprinted from *Guy's Hosp Rep*, 1843 and 1844, N.S. i and ii. "On the Pathology and Treatment of Fracture of the Neck of the Thigh Bone," 8vo, London, 1845; reprinted from *Guy's Hosp Rep*, to which at different times Cooper contributed a large number of papers. *Lectures on the Principles and Practice of Surgery*, 8vo, London, 1851; reprinted in Philadelphia, 1852. *The Hunterian Oration, delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons, February 14th*, 1853, 8vo, London, 1853. The Oration is said to have been a great failure, and the auditors were sorry for the Orator as, like all his distinguished family, he was a great favourite. Cooper also edited Sir Astley Cooper's *Treatise on Dislocations*, "with additional observations and a memoir," 8vo, 1842. (Philadelphia and also Boston, 1844. Published also by the Massachusetts Medical Society in the "Library of Practical Medicine").