Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A particularly fine ‘Afghanistan 1919’ C.B.E., and ‘Relief of Kut 1916’ immediate D.S.O. group of ten awarded to Colonel M. E. ‘Doppers’ Dopping-Hepenstal, 1st K.G.V.O. Gurkha Rifles (The Malaun Regiment), he was three times wounded, badly burnt rescuing soldiers from a fire in France, and four times mentioned in despatches

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, C.B.E. (Military) Commander’s 1st type neck badge, silver-gilt and enamels, chips to blue enamel on two arms; Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel, with integral top riband bar, pin removed for mounting purposes; India General Service 1895-1902, 2 clasps, Punjab Frontier 1897-98, Waziristan 1901-2 (Lieutt. M. E. Dapping Hepingstal 1st Bn. 3d Gurkha Rifles) official correction to first initial; 1914-15 Star (Maj. M. E. Dopping-Hepenstal, 1/1/Gurkha Rfls.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Lt. Col. M. E. Dopping-Hepenstal.); India General Service 1908-35, 3 clasps, Afghanistan N.W.F. 1919, Waziristan 1919-21, Waziristan 1921-24 (Lt. Col. M. E. Dopping Hepenstal, 2-1 Grks.); Delhi Durbar 1911; Jubilee 1935; French Croix de Guerre 1914 1918, with bronze palme, the last nine court mounted, unless otherwise described, good very fine or better (10) £3,000-£3,600

C.B.E. London Gazette 3 August 1920.

D.S.O. London Gazette 24 June 1916; citation London Gazette 27 July 1916: ‘For conspicuous gallantry when leading his battalion in the attack under heavy rifle and machine-gun fire.’

M.I.D. London Gazette 15 June 1916 (France); 27 July 1916 (France); 15 August 1917 (Mesopotamia); 3 August 1920 (Afghanistan 1919); and 12 June 1923 (Waziristan 1921).

Croix de Guerre London Gazette 26 September 1917.

Maxwell Edward Dopping-Hepenstal was born on 7 March 1872, son of Colonel Ralph Anthony Dopping-Hepenstal, of Derrycassan, Ireland, J.P. and D.L., High Sheriff and Honourary Colonel of the Longford Rifles. He was educated at King William’s College, Isle of Man (with honours), and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst 1892.

He was commissioned into the 1st Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment, as a Second Lieutenant on 18 June 1892, and promoted to Lieutenant on 9 October 1893. He was appointed to the Indian Army on 25 July 1896, joining the 1st Battalion, 3rd Gurkha Rifles (Queen Alexandra’s Own), and was later attached as a wing officer to the 5th Infantry Hyderabad Contingent for actions with Major General Elles’ Mohmand Field Force on the Punjab Frontier 1897-98 (Medal with Clasp).

He was promoted to Captain on 10 July 1901, and in December of that year proceeded with the 1st Battalion to Tank on the North-West Frontier (Kabul Khel country) to form part of a supporting brigade to the Waziristan Blockade Force to put down raids by the Mahsud Waziris. The 1/3 G.R. was in the second of three mobile columns working simultaneously in the territory. There was considerable hardship in this cold and inhospitable country but the regiment performed excellent work in scouting and piquet duty (Clasp to India medal).

In 1907 Dopping-Hepenstal travelled to Japan for a two-year program to study the Japanese language. After the decisive victories of the Japanese over the Russians in the 1904-05 War the armies and navies of Europe, as well as the United States, took a keener interest in Japan and the Far East. While studying in Japan Dopping-Hepenstal learned the martial art of Judo - rare, in the West at this time. Upon his return he was qualified as an interpreter 2nd Class in Japanese. He was already versed in the Indian native languages of Urdu and Gurkhali. In 1899, he and fellow Gurkha officer, Subadar Kusalasi Barathaki, had co-authored a small, useful phrase book, Khas Gurkhali Grammar and Vocabulary, used primarily by British officers.

On 18 February 1908, Captain Dopping-Hepenstal officially transferred to the 1st Battalion, 1st (King George V’s Own) Gurkha Rifles. He was promoted to Major on 18 June 1910, and in 1911 he attended the Delhi Durbar, when his own regiment and the 1st Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers served as Guards of Honour, positioned in front of the Emperor’s reception tent. Major Dopping-Hepenstal, however, was awarded 1911 Durbar Medal at the request of H.M. George V for his participation in planning and organisation with the various shooting camps in Nepal for the King-Emperor and Maharaja of Nepal. The total bag according to the Historical Records of the Imperial Visit was thirty-nine tigers, eighteen rhinoceroses and four bears.

When The Great War broke out in August 1914 Dopping-Hepenstal, like many in the summer season, was on furlough. He rejoined his regiment (part of the Sirhind Infantry Brigade) in Egypt on 7 November 1914, which was then posted to the defence of the Suez Canal. The Sirhind Brigade (Lahore Division) was the first to reach Egypt to guard the Canal and was relieved mid-November by a Lancashire Territorial Division. The 1st K.G.V.O. Gurkhas, with 1st/4th Gurkha Rifles, sailed to France on the S.S. Mounteagle on 22 November. Their first action in France was the battle of Givenchy which, by this time had turned into a primitive defensive trench network, but Major Dopping-Hepenstal was not involved in these actions.

On 11 February 1915, the Sirhind Brigade (1st H.L.I., 4th Seaforths, 1/1st Gurkhas and 1/4th Gurkhas) replaced the Dehra Dun Brigade in the trenches outside Neuve Chapelle. Trench duty of building, repairing earthworks, communication links and raiding parties set in. Constant shelling persisted and, on 18 March 1915, Major Dopping-Hepenstal was slightly wounded in the back of the neck by a burst shrapnel shell. He spent three weeks out of the front line recovering from his wound.

On 19 April 1915, back in the Neuve Chapelle vicinity, Major Dopping-Hepenstal was severely burned on the face and hands while rescuing French civilians and troops from a burning farmhouse. His injuries were serious enough to evacuate him back to England to convalesce for five months. For his heroic deed Major Dopping-Hepenstal was awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French Government. He returned to his Regiment in the Givenchy area on 27 September 1915 - permanently scarred to face and hands.

Monotonous trench warfare was the order of the day for the remainder of 1915. A warmer climate awaited the 1st Battalion when, on 15 December 1915, they sailed with the 57th Punjabis, 47th Sikhs, and Headquarters Staff from Marseilles on the transport Franconia to Egypt, Port Said and finally on to Basra in Mesopotamia. The Sirhind Brigade was to take part in the relief of the besieged forces of Major-General Townshend at Kut-al-Amara, beginning in January 1916.

The Sirhind Brigade, now reorganised, was henceforth known as the 9th (Sirhind) Brigade or simply the 9th Infantry Brigade. It consisted of 1st H.L.I., 1/1st Gurkhas, 1/9th Gurkhas ,and the 93rd Burma Infantry. The Brigade saw action against the Turk defences at Hanna in January and February, and the Dujaila Redoubt in February and March). Major Dopping-Hepenstal, himself, saw considerable action in the severe fighting of the Dujaila offensive [known as the Battle at Dujaila Redoubt during the second relief effort]. He was slightly wounded on the first day’s engagement, 8 March 1916, and spent one month behind the front lines recuperating from his wounds.

The next action the 9th Brigade was against the Turkish defences of Beit Aiessa (Bait Isa) on the Tigris River. This was the third and final attempt at a relief breakthrough. The offensive began on 17 April 1916, at which time Major Dopping-Hepenstal was temporarily in command of the 1st Gurkhas owning to the illness of Lieutenant-Colonel W. C. Anderson. The fighting against the Turks at Beit Aiessa was extremely severe, resulting in heavy Gurkha losses. According to the 1st K.G.O. Gurkha regimental history and war diary, the early morning attack came at 6:54 a.m., with Dopping-Hepenstal giving the order to advance. It came under heavy rifle and machine-gun fire. The charge against ‘Johnny Turk’ by the 9th Brigade’s Gurkha Rifles that rainy morning ‘with bomb, bayonet and kukri’ was a brilliant action resulting in the capture of the day of 400 Turkish and German prisoners, six machine-guns and two field guns.

In Edmund Candler’s The Long Road to Baghdad (1919) he speaks of the initial charge of the 1/1st and 1/9th Gurkhas against the heavily entrenched Turks:

‘With true psychological instinct they went in and killed nearly every man in the trench, cutting and slashing with their kukris, jabbing with their bayonets, or firing a charge point blank to finish the work of steel. They took three machine-guns and cleared the second line with similar carnage. The Turkish third line rose in a cloud and bolted’.

However, that afternoon the Turks launched a major counter-attack, estimated to be around ten thousand bayonets, led by the elite Second Constantinople Division. The sheer numbers overwhelmed the advance and successes of the day and a retreat across the Beit Aieesa front was ordered. Thus the third relief effort for Kut had failed. Twelve days later, on 29 April 1916, General Townshend would surrender his forces after a five-month siege with a toll of 23,000 British casualties racked-up over the three attempts to relieve the garrison.

For his leadership and gallant display in the attack on the Beit Aiessa trenches Major Dopping-Hepenstal was awarded the D.S.O., an immediate award for his conspicuous gallantry when leading his battalion in the attack under heavy rifle and machine-gun fire.

On 8 August 1916, Lieutenant-Colonel Anderson rejoined the battalion and took over command from Major Dopping-Hepenstal. On 9 December 1916, on the promotion to Brevet Colonel, Colonel Anderson took command of the 9th Brigade, and Major Dopping-Hepenstal assumed command of the 1/1st Gurkhas. This proved to be short lived as Colonel Anderson was relieved from the Brigade Command on 22 January 1917, by Brigadier-General Campbell, and Anderson returned as battalion commander. During this time the battalion was in a position known as the Kut East Mounds, in preparation for the final assault and capture of Kut-al-Amara, now held by the Turks. The 9th Brigade, however, was pulled back and ordered to positions before Baghdad.

The hundred plus mile advance on Baghdad resulted in a major action amongst the foothills of Jebel Hamrin range, an arduous terrain of unfordable nullas, the ground being described as ‘entirely unknown’. The position before Jebel Hamrin was, as the war diary states ‘strongly held by some of the finest troops in the Turkish Army, with an honourable record behind them and no hint of that weak morale which had naturally affected the troops’. The operation took place over several days in late March and was very costly in casualties to British and Gurkha officers. The 1/1st Gurkhas suffered significantly with one lieutenant killed and four officers severely wounded. Colonel Anderson and Major Dopping-Hepenstal were both severely wounded, shot through the lungs, Captain W. B. Northey was shot through both cheeks and Lieutenant F. S. Sheridan, was listed missing and presumed dead. According to the regimental history the wounds suffered by Anderson, Dopping-Hepenstal and Northey all took place within minutes of each other.

Major Dopping-Hepenstal was sent to the Officer’s Hospital in Bombay, where he spent eight months convalescence. On his return to active duty in November 1917, he briefly became the commander of the battalion depot. Soon after, Colonel Anderson took over the depot command as he returned to light duty.

In Petre’s history of the 1st Gurkha Rifles, Colonel Anderson wrote the following that it would be included in the record:

‘Hepenstal was my second-in-command and right-hand man from the time I took over command of the Battalion in France on the 4th January 1915 until we were both shot through the lungs at Jebel Hamrin, Mesopotamia, on the 25th March 1917. A most reliable and sound officer. A loyal friend, with the heart of a lion. He was three times wounded, and on the 19th April 1915 very severely burnt, together with Captain Johnson and several men, in putting out a fire at a farm. Hepenstal’s injuries necessitated his being sent to England and for months he was unfit for duty, and to this day bears the scars and marks of the burns.’

On 1 January 1918, Major Dopping-Hepenstal joined the 2nd Battalion, 1st Gurkha Rifles, at Ferozepur as second-in-command to Lieutenant-Colonel E. D. Money, C.I.E., D.S.O. Two months later, on 2 March 1918, he succeeded Money as Commandant of the battalion, and on 11 March he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel.

With the end of the war in November 1918, the focus was shifted towards the continuous uprisings on the North-West Frontier and elsewhere on India’s borders. On 6 May 1919, the Government of India declared war and general mobilization and the Third Afghan War began. The 2nd Battalion was engaged in numerous skirmishes and police-like activities, and for his actions and service during these hostilities Lieutenant-Colonel Dopping-Hepenstal was mentioned in despatches and made a C.B.E. (Medal with Clasp). He afterwards participated in the Waziristan operations of 1920-21 (Despatches; two Clasps).

The battalion left the Wazir Force in late December of 1921 and returned to headquarters at Dharmsala, arriving there on 11 January 1922, and on 11 March Dopping-Hepenstal was promoted to Colonel. He stepped down on the same day, ending his long and most distinguished service with the Regiment. He remained in the Indian Army until officially retiring and leaving on 11 September 1922.

Upon retirement ‘Doppers’ settled in the Cowichan Valley town of Duncan, Vancouver, B.C. where his niece, Mrs. E. C. Birch-Jones lived. Described by a journalist as ‘the most English town in Canada’, Duncan was a bastion of the old imperial order of expatriot aristocrats, retired British and Indian Army officers. The area was known as ‘The Last of the Longstockings’ where tweed breeks and puttees were the daily norm. He continued to enjoy the sporting life, fishing, shooting, cricket and lawn tennis. His main interest was the keen association with the local Quamichan Boy Scout Troop. ‘Doppers’ became Scoutmaster in 1926 and served in that capacity until 1934, when he took charge as District Commissioner. The Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia, W. C. Woodward, awarded him the Order of the Silver Wolf in 1942. At that time the 1st Quanichan Troop added “Hepenstal’s Own” to its name, or the familiar “Heppie’s Own”. He expressed his gratitude to the troop for this great honour by presenting every member of the Scout Troop and the Cub Pack with new shoulder flashes bearing his name. This imperial soldier and scoutmaster was granted a special ‘salute’ on the Armistice Day Celebration of 1951.

On 6 May 1935 Colonel M. E. Dopping-Hepenstal, CBE, DSO was awarded the King’s 1935 Jubilee Medal, and the following year he attended a reception and events in London given by the Gurkha contingent in honour of the Coronation of King George VI.

‘Doppers’ died at King’s Daughters’ Hospital in 1965, at the age of 93 years. The funeral took place at St. Peter’s Church, in Quamicham with full Scout honours. The pallbearers were officials of the Scout movement. He was a well-known and respected figure in Duncan and was survived by his niece, Mrs E. C. Birch-Jones. The Colonel or ‘Doppers’ never married.

Sold with comprehensive research including 1st Gurkhas War Diaries on CD, and a good number of copied photographs from regimental archives.