Leonard Cooper (25 March 1934 – 29 November 2013) worked for numerous publishing houses before setting up his own independent publishing house, Leo Cooper Ltd, in 1968.
Leo was educated at Radley College where he took charge of the military band and distinguished himself on the rugby and cricket fields. He was capped at cricket for the Yorkshire schoolboys; in later life he smashed Denis Compton for six with such vigour that he toppled a spectator sitting in a wheelchair into a nearby pond.
His publishing business was based upon monumental works such as Lord Anglesey's eight-volume History of the British Cavalry (1973-95) and the Famous Regiments series, he was always on the look out for what George Orwell called "unofficial history", such as Antonia Hunt's Little Resistance (1982), the extraordinary story of an English schoolgirl's experiences in German-occupied France.
In 1970, Leo Cooper Ltd merged with the long-established firm of Seeley, Service, which was in turn bought by Frederick Warne in 1979 after the company went into receivership and then in 1982 he moved under the happier umbrella of Secker & Warburg, then part of the Heinemann Group. In 1990 the firm was sold to the Barnsley Chronicle and renamed Pen & Sword Books.
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