For my aunts, now all deceased, it was often a time of loneliness, but for my father and his brother (also deceased) an adventure of a lifetime, as also was their life in Inglewood Forest which preceded their years at the lighthouse. The lighthouse off East Random Head is known as "The Motion." Today only the lighthouse stands, the house is gone and the light is automatic. But back in 1895, Thomas Henry Cooper and his family moved from Inglewood Forest to The Motion to become the lighthouse keeper of the East Random Head Lighthouse. Thomas Henry Cooper died in 1905, at which time his son George Havlock Cooper was appointed Lightkeeper and left Inglewood with his wife Fanny and their five children Sadie, Samuel Robert, Fanny, Thomas Henry (named for his grandfather) and Rosa to take up residence at "The Motion." The enclosed pictures are copies of the ones taken by the Coopers during their more than 25-year stay. From there the family moved to Clarenville, and Thomas continued to service the light for some years. My father Samuel Robert (Bert) was age eleven when the family moved to the lighthouse. This is a picture of the series of ladders going from The Wedge Rock up the rocky precipice of East Random Head. When one reached a natural path the ladders stopped, and one walked the two hours to the nearest village, Deer Harbour, professed by my father to be "the most beautiful of coves;" sadly since resettlement no longer inhabited. This is just one of the many pictures taken by the Coopers during their just less than thirty years at the East Random Head Lighthouse.

Elizabeth (Cooper) Bustard   Submitted By: NULL