Warren Grey (sometimes spelled ‘Gray’) Hepworth was born in Mafeking, South Africa, on 7.9.1890. In the 1911 census he was shown as living in Tiverton, while a bank clerk. He fought in World War 1 in the Royal North Devon Yeomanry and the Devonshire Regiment. In 1915 he was unlucky enough to be stationed at Gallipoli. In 2021 three of his medals were auctioned at Bonhams and sold for £180.

In 1922 he married Elisabeth Grace Browne at Exeter. In the 1939 Register he was living at Rye as a manager of Lloyds Bank. The Hastings and St Leonards Observer of 5.1.1952 described him as a retired bank manager from Worcester, who was so impressed by the Hastings Chess Congress that he joined the chess club and accepted an invitation to become a vice-president. The same newspaper of 6.12.1952 mentioned that he was chairman of the Hastings Rotary Club.

I have a few references to matches in which he represented the club and I get the impression that he was an average club player or a little above average. I could not find a single reference to his playing in the East Sussex team in the Sexton Cup, so perhaps he was not very ambitious. Here are the few references that I have come across, though probably one could find several more:

1954 Board 5 for Hastings ‘B’ v Bexhill ‘A’. Drew with R E Smith.
1954 Board 2 for Hastings v Bexhill. Drew with F W Boff, a strong player, his best result.
1958 Board 13 for Hastings v Watford. Won v j Harvey.
1958 Board 14 for Hastings v Canterbury. Lost v R Boughey.

By 1958 he seems to have become inflicted by an illness and the Hastings and St Leonards Observer of 21.10.1958 mentions the new BBC chess programme called Network Three and states that it will be a godsend for chess-playing invalids like W G Hepworth. Hepworth himself added that he had high hopes that he would be in Hastings for the congress. He had lived for several years at 26, Warrior Square, but it appears that in that year he moved out to Hiham Green, near Rye.

Hepworth was a member of a revived Rye CC in 1959. During his time there he played in two matches against Hastings, the second of which was early in 1960.

I am not sure exactly when he moved to the Felpham District of Bognor, but in the Bognor Regis Observer of 12.5.1961 he is mentioned as playing in the club championship of Bognor CC. In another edition of the newspaper (10.2.1961) it is recorded that he played on board three for the club in a match against the local LEC Refrigeration Company and drew with G Biggs. He gave a brilliancy prize for the club and was a member in the 1962-63 season competing in the major event rather than the club championship. He died in 1963, aged 72. His wife died in 1982 in Exeter..

There was an obituary for him in the Hastings and St Leonards Observer of 4.5.1963. This described him as a former vice-president and auditor for the club. His professional help in committee was said to be invaluable. The article adds that until his move to Bognor, he had been a daily frequenter of the club. It is stated that he played a lively and quite formidable game, but he never bothered to play really seriously. He liked a bright, quick game with a fast-moving opponent. He was always excellent company. As a child he was in Mafeking during the seven month siege by the Boers in 1900. He vividly recalled the arrival of Lord Roberts’s relieving infantry.

B.Denman