CAPTAIN WILLIAM VICTOR TREVOR ROOPER
ROYAL FLYING CORPS
9TH OCTOBER 1917 AGE 20
BURIED: BAILLEUL COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION, FRANCE
William Rooper was a twenty-year-old flying ace. He joined No. 1 Squadron in the summer of 1917 and was credited with eight victories between his first on 28 July 1917 and his death on 9 October. He was shot down in aerial combat over Polygon Wood, becoming the seventh victim of Xavier Dannhuber.
Rooper's inscription comes from the Book of the Apocrypha, the Wisdom of Solomon 4:13-14:
He, being made perfect in a short time, fulfilled a long time:
For his soul pleased the Lord: therefore hastened He to take him away from among the wicked.