Service Details
- Branch of Service
- Army
- Conflict
- World War I (1914-1918)
- Date of Enlistment
- 01/07/1915
- Place of Enlistment
- Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT
Personal Details
- Gender
- Male
- Date of Birth
- 25/11/1896
- Place of Birth
- Adelaide, South Australia
- Address (at enlistment)
- Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT
- Occupation
- Soldier
- Next of Kin
- Son of Henry and Marie Gepp, Aurora Hotel, Pirie Street, Adelaide, South Australia
- Burial Place
No known grave
Unit and Rank Details
- Final Rank
- Lieutenant
- Final Unit
- 28 Battalion AIF
Fate
Died (killed in action), Pozières, France on 5 August 1916, aged 19 years
Commemoration
AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 115, Canberra ACT
Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, France
Large stone tablet on outside of northern wall of St. John's Church, Reid ACT
Notes
Gepp entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon on 9 March 1913 and was graduated early, along with the rest of his class, on 28 June 1915. He joined B Company, 32nd Battalion as a Lieutenant and embarked from Adelaide in November 1915. In early 1916 he was transferred to the 28th Battalion at Tel-el-Kebir in Egypt as a platoon commander in B Company and moved with his battalion to France in March 1916. According to his commanding officer, Gepp "did good work in the trenches at Armentières and was posted as Signalling Officer when the Battalion moved to the Somme in July. He did excellent work in that position until killed in action on 5 August 1916."
The 28th Battalion was occupying the OG line near the Windmill on Pozières heights on 5 August 1916 when Gepp was hit by the concussion of an enemy shell and killed. He was buried on the spot but his grave was lost in later fighting.
Sources
AWM Roll of Honour Database
AWM Roll of Honour Circular
AWM First World War Unit Embarkation Rolls
AWM Collections Record : H06620
Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', 1952
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)