GS Cooper - Biography

George Sidney Cooper was born in the Winton district of Eccles in 1935. He grew up in Swinton and attended Moorside Road Comprehensive school from 1940-1955. before going on to attend the Salford Art School.

Leaving college he worked for a Salford printing company illustrating mail order catalogues and magazines ads etc as at that time there was very little colour photography.

In 1965, 'Sid' moved to Lancaster and worked in the studio at  the Courtauds company. There his job consisted of transferring textile designs into separate colour frames for running through the printing presses. Being made redundant in the late seventies due to Courtaulds moving parts of the process out of Lancaster he decided to go it alone and try to turn what had always been his passion and a part time hobby for many years into a business. He started mainly with railway paintings as they had always proved popular. He was eventually able to concentrate on his real passion which was buses and road transport.

Having spent many years traveling the country taking photographs he had acquired a vast amount of knowledge on his subject. He was able to produce authentic and nostalgic pictures of street scenes, with buses and commercial vehicles in their many and varied liveries. As very many predated the days of colour photography they could be seen for the first time in their true colours.

Sid became well known through his regular attendance of steam rallies, toy fairs and model railway exhibitions. He appeared on TV, being interviewed by Stuart Hall for Look North West in the mid 1980s. He also illustrated several book covers for TPC Transport Publications and his work was published in several national newspapers in transport supplements. Liverpool Maritime Museum commissioned him to produce a series of posters depicting the historic ferries and steamers of Merseyside He also worked on a series of transport related pub signs, telephone cards and bookmarks.

He worked with Dawn Publications on a series of football related postcards and first day covers. These proved to be hugely popular and for two consecutive years were voted the best new design. He also provided illustrations for a very popular series "the one that got away" featured in Gavin Booths Classic Bus Magazine.

Sid was still working on both these series right up until his untimely death in 1998.