District Commissioner Edward Alfred ROPER
Civilian

Date of birth: 4th February 1886
Date of death: 28th November 1917

Killed by enemy action aged 31
Buried at sea
He was born at Croydon, Surrey on the 4th of February 1886 the elder son of Henry Alfred Roper, wholesale tea and coffee merchant, and Kate (nee Berney) of 27, St Saviours Road, St Leonards-on-Sea. He was christened at Croydon on the 14th of April 1886.

He was educated at Lansdowne School, Croydon from 1895 to 1898 and at the King's School Canterbury from September 1898 to July 1905 where he was granted a Junior Scholarship in December 1900 and a Senior Scholarship in July 1902. He was appointed as a monitor in September 1903 and as Captain of School in September 1904. He was editor of the Canturian and President of the Debating Society in 1904. He won his sports colours in 1904 and 1905 and held the record for the half mile, which he won in a time of 2 minutes 8 1/2 seconds. He also won prizes for Classics, Literature and Verse.

He won an open classical scholarship to Queen's College, Oxford where he gained a 2nd Class in Classical Moderations in 1907, and a 2nd Class Lit Hum in 1909. He was president of the Queen's College Sports Club in 1907 and rowed in the college boat in 1908.

He took up teaching in 1908 but in 1911 he was appointed as an Assistant District Commissioner in Sierra Leone and in 1914 was appointed to District Commissioner.

On the outbreak of war, he offered to resign this position and take up a commission, but his work was considered too valuable to be relinquished. He repeated his request on a number of subsequent occasions, but all were refused.

On the 3rd of November 1917 the defensively armed liner SS Apapa set sail from Lagos, bound for Liverpool. On the 14th of November she docked at Freetown to pick up passengers, which included Edward Roper who was going on leave to England. At the request of the Governor, he was carrying with him the first vocabulary of the Konno language to be compiled, which he had just competed and which was to be printed as a book in London.

SS Apapa joined a convoy of nine other vessels escorted by destroyers, but these left her at 6.30pm on 27th of November and she sailed on alone. The night of the 28th of November 1917 was a clear and moonlit, and she had just passed the Middle Mouse on her starboard bow at 4.10am, steaming at 13 knots, when she suddenly shook from stem to stern. Many passengers were thrown from their bunks, and it was obvious that she was sinking. She had been hit by a KIII torpedo fired from one of the stern tubes of the German U Boat U-96 commanded by Kapit?nleutnant Heinrich Jess which was just 300 metres behind the SS Apapa when the torpedo was fired. At that time, she was still on an even keel and the Captain, Captain James Thomas Toft, ordered the engines to be stopped. Close examination showed that the torpedo had ripped a huge hole in the starboard side towards the stern of the ship, and Captain Toft then ordered that the boats should be lowered. As the lifeboats were being loaded, a man was seen disappearing down a companionway. His mission was one from which he never returned. His name was Mr. Harragin, of the Gold Coast Customs, and he was coming home with his wife to spend a well-earned rest in England. She was lying in their cabin, ill with black-water fever and he tried to carry her on deck, but she declared herself too ill and too weak to be moved. And so he stayed with her - just two of the forty passengers who lost their lives. By this time many of the passengers were safely in the lifeboats and the ship had developed a list to starboard. Suddenly, there was a streak in the water, and a second torpedo hit the ship, again on the starboard side but this time further forward. Some of the lifeboats were swamped and the ship lurched to starboard. As she did so, the stays supporting the funnel snapped and the funnel collapsed, falling onto a lifeboat that was loaded and was just about to be lowered into the water. It was this second torpedo that contributed to the large number of casualties. A few moments later the ship plunged stern first to the bottom of the sea. There were 249 persons on board the vessel at the time, but Edward Roper was one of the 40 passengers and 37 crew who lost their lives.

An Oxford friend wrote that he was a born fighter and, the many who knew and loved him, have the consolation that he met his end as gamely as he lived.
 

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