Early life Hepple was born in London and was the son of the painter Robert Watkin Hepple and the nephew of Wilson Hepple, the animal painter from Northumbria. Hepple studied at
Goldsmiths College of Art and then the
Royal Academy Schools, under
Sir Walter Russell, where he obtained a scholarship in engraving.
World War II At the start of the Second World War Hepple joined the
Auxiliary Fire Service, which in 1941 became the
National Fire Service, NFS, and served as a fire-fighter during the London
Blitz. A number of other artists had joined the NFS and a firemen artists' committee had been formed which included
Leonard Rosoman,
Bernard Hailstone,
Paul Lucien Dessau and Robert Coram. As well as contributing to both
War Artists' Advisory Committee, WAAC, and specialist civil defence art shows, the firemen held several of their own exhibitions. WAAC initially purchased two paintings by Hepple, one in 1940 and another in 1941. In 1943 WAAC commissioned a series of drawings from Hepple of NFS personnel and were to purchase another five paintings, including a fine portrait of a Canadian fire-fighter, from him before the war ended. He painted portraits of
Queen Elizabeth II on three occasions;- in 1965 for the
Royal Marines, in 1978 for the island of
Jersey and also in 1978 for the submarine officers of
HMS Dolphin. Hepple was elected a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 1948 and served as their president from 1979 to 1983. The
New English Art Club elected Hepple as a member in 1950. ==References==