Notes
Eduardo Henry de Renier Copé di Valromita was born at Paignton in Devon on 9 September 1906, the son of Baron James Biddle Copé di Valromita, an author, and Marie (née Saunders), of Rome. He was educated at Begbroke School, and entered Worcester College on 13 October 1923.
Eduardo Copé was unable to return to Worcester College for his second year due to a lack of funds, and completed his education in Italy, including a PhD on Samuel Johnson. In 1938 he had been working as a professor of Italian literature at University College Cork in Ireland for three months when he made an attempt to commit suicide, having become severely depressed. As a result he was asked to leave the country or face prosecution.
During the Second World War Eduardo Copé was living in Italy. As the German Army retreated from southern Italy in the summer of 1944 they came under an increasing number of attacks from local Italian partisans who ambushed their convoys. In retaliation the Germans routinely rounded up groups of local men and announced that they would be shot unless the perpetrators of the attack gave themselves up. According to a letter received by the College in 1945, Eduardo Copé offered himself in place of an older man with several children, and this offer was accepted. Eduardo Copé di Valromita was shot by German forces on 11 August 1944, at Viareggio in Tuscany. He was 37.
Eduardo Copé di Valromita is commemorated on the war memorial at Worcester College, Oxford.