SECOND LIEUTENANT ROGER PAUL HEPBURN, MC
ROYAL ENGINEERS
3RD AUGUST 1917 AGE 24
BURIED: LIJSSENTHOEK MILITARY CEMETERY, BELGIUM
Educated at Rugby School and Magdalen College, Cambridge, Roger Hepburn had just graduated with a 1st Class degree in Natural Sciences when war was declared. He and three friends, who were all still up in Cambridge during the Long Vacation, immediately left with their motorbikes to join the BEF as despatch riders. Two of them survived the war but Hepburn, who was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in May 1915, survived the Somme but was hit by a shell on 1 August 1917 and died of wounds in Casualty Clearing Station at Poperinghe two days later.
Paul Hepburn was the youngest son of the late Sir Henry Hepburn, formerly Chairman of Devon County Council. The family, who owned Hele Paper Mill, which produced high quality paper used for bank notes throughout Britain and the Empire, lived at Dunmore House, Bradninch, Devon.