Joseph Copson 1888-1947
Joseph was born in Spratton in October 1888, the son of Joseph Copson, a slipper manufacturer, and his wife Mary Ann. Both parents came from long-established families in the village. The large family with 15 children lived in the Brixworth Road in a six-roomed cottage (now known as April Cottage). When Joseph left school he became a bootmaker and boarded with a family in Kingsthorpe, near Northampton. He returned regularly to Spratton and played in the village brass band. He was also a good pianist. He played in the village football team, and married Mabel Hobley, a shop assistant, in the village church in September 1912. In the 1920s he bought the White Horse Inn on the Brixworth Road, opposite April Cottage, his childhood home.
Five of the Copson brothers served in the First World War - Alfred, Joseph, John, Ebenezer and William Archibald - and all five returned. We have been unable to find details of Joseph's military career except that he joined the Army Ordnance Corps in 1916 and was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. He died in March 1947 aged 58 years.