In 2024 members voted to appoint Professor John and Margaret Cooper as our Honorary Members for their continued support of our club. An amazing couple whose kindness and enthusiasm is inspiring.

John and Margaret Cooper are a husband-and-wife team, based primarily in Britain. Professor John E Cooper, who has had a lifelong interest in natural history, trained as a veterinary surgeon and is now a specialist pathologist with particular interests in wildlife and exotic species, tropical diseases and comparative medicine. Mrs Margaret E Cooper is a lawyer who qualified originally as a British solicitor and has made the study of animal and conservation law her special interest.

The Coopers have lived and worked in a number of countries. They have spent over ten years in Africa, including a period in Rwanda with the mountain gorillas. In 2009 they returned from nearly seven years at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago, where they combined their medical and legal backgrounds in the promotion of an interdisciplinary approach to veterinary and biological education, wildlife conservation and forensic science. In the UK, the Coopers resist suggestions that they ought to “retire” and continue to write and lecture about veterinary pathology, animal law and forensic medicine. When feasible they continue their work with wildlife, domesticated animals and communities in East Africa.