Sir William Hepburn McAlpine, 6th Baronet, FRSE (12 January 1936 – 4 March 2018) was a British businessman who was director of the construction company Sir Robert McAlpine.
Brought up at the family home in Surrey and educated at Charterhouse,[2] McAlpine joined the family firm from school, starting his career at the Hayes Depot in Middlesex, a 30-acre (120,000 m2) site which housed the McAlpine railway locomotive and wagon fleet. The years after the Second World War were a busy time for the construction industry.
In 1973, McAlpine purchased the historic British 4472 Flying Scotsman steam locomotive, saving it from possible demise and repatriating it from the United States two years after a U.S. tour which had bankrupted its previous owner, Alan Pegler. Sir William maintained and ran the locomotive as a service to the British public and international steam community until the mid-1990s, when it was purchased by steam enthusiast Tony Marchington.
In 1990, on the death of his father, McAlpine inherited his baronetcy and became Sir William. He was patron of the Clan MacAlpine Society.[4] He served as High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire for 1999. He was a director and trustee of the educational charity Shiplake Court Limited.
He was also the president of the Railway Benevolent Institution, known as the Railway Benefit Fund, a charity helping current and retired railway industry workers.
Railway preservation
An acknowledged railway enthusiast, McAlpine returned to Hayes depot during the Beeching Axe to find that the company's Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0ST No.31 was for sale for £100. He purchased the locomotive, and moved it to his country estate home.[5] This marked the start in 1961 of the 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gaugeFawley Hill Railway, a private railway which now runs to over a mile long and has the steepest gradient at 1:13 on a British railway.[6]
McAlpine was also a Patron of the Swanage Railway Trust, as well as President of the Transport Trust, the charity dedicated to the preservation of all modes of transport and its infrastructure.
Three locomotives have been named Sir William McAlpine; Ruston 48 No.294266, once owned by Sir William himself, EWS's 60008 and DB Cargo UK's 90028.[10][11]
Personal life
McAlpine's first wife Jill Benton Jones, whom he married on 31 October 1959, died on 9 February 2004.[1]
They had two children:
^McAlpine, Hon. Sir William (Hepburn). Who's Who online. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.25271.(subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries)