Roger Alan Kenneth Burton was born in Cromer, England, on Aug. 17, 1923, and died in Bourne, Mass. on Jan. 30, 2013.

He was a World World II veteran, world traveler, photographer, sailor, tennis player, animal-lover, and beloved husband, father, grandfather, and friend. It was said of Roger that he was always a gentleman.

Roger's father worked as an oil mining engineer in Assam, India, and Roger's first childhood memory was of the elephants stomping through the backyard and taking down the clothesline. While his parents, Kenneth and Miriam, worked and lived in Trinidad and British Guyana, Roger and his sister Rosamund lived with their grandmother and nanny in England. He was educated at Broadwater Manor and Leighton Park boarding schools. When World War II broke out in Europe in 1939, Roger thought he'd train as a pilot but the armed services had a pressing need for individuals in a field about which little was known, called RADAR. Roger joined the Hankey Radio Scheme, which recruited science and math university students to be commissioned in the armed services after completing a classifed electronics course at university. Roger chose to study at the University of Nottingham in the English Midlands.

During the war, Roger served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) in India and Burma, installing and managing radar stations, including the first over-the-horizon radar system, which was installed in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). He also served as a radio announcer and entertainment manager in Forces Broadcasting in Eygpt. While in Cairo in 1946, Roger was told by a fortune teller that he'd have three children, one of whom would be different than the other two, that he'd marry three times, and that the last marriage would be the happiest.

After returning to Britain at the end of the war, Roger was selected to escort Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, at the 1948 Olympic Games. Armed with his experience in broadcasting, Roger worked briefly as a film extra and appeared in several movies made at Pinewood Studios, including Ideal Husband and Sir Laurence Olivier's Hamlet.

Returning to the University of Nottingham, Roger earned a B.Sc. degree in Physics in 1950. While at university, he worked on the university charter activities and was social secretary of the Student Union. There, he met Jean Williams, the Registrar's secretary, and they married after he finished his degree program. Their son, Alan, was born in 1951, followed by a daughter, Nicole, whom they adopted in 1956.

Roger became a commissioned officer in the Royal Air Force, and from 1957 to 1960, he served in Washington, D.C., as the RAF liaison to the United States Air Force (USAF) at the Pentagon. While in Washington, his analyses predicted Soviet advances in space communications and the Sputnik satellite launch. For this work, he received a Letter of Commendation in 1960, and was recommended for the British equivalent of a Legion of Merit Award. Roger was an Associate Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society, and a Chartered Engineer.

Roger and family returned to England, where they adopted a second daughter, Chris, in 1960. After attaining the rank of Wing Commander, Roger retired from the RAF in 1968, but continued his radar communications career as a civilian analyst with Raytheon Corporation in Bedford, Mass. Not one to stand still, Roger managed a radar communications site for the USAF in Aviano, Italy, from 1969 to 1971, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1973. In 1979, Roger transferred to the Mitre Corporation and spent nine years as a Mitre senior analyst in Kaiserstaultern, Germany. Roger retired from Mitre in 1990.

In 1973, Roger had married Peggy White, whom he met in Italy, his first marriage having ended in divorce. Following a divorce and remarriage to Peggy in 1994, they bought and lovingly restored a 1917 Georgian colonial house overlooking Butler's Cove in Onset, Mass. In his retirement years, Roger was active in the University of Nottingham Alumni Association and served several terms as the association secretary of the U.S. alumni affiliate.

In addition to his beloved wife, Peggy, Roger is survived by three children, Alan Burton, Nicole Burton, and Chris Camuso; two stepchildren, Marylyn Roberts and August Sanders; and six grandchildren, Dustin Burton, Corey Exline, Park Roberts, Morgan Roberts, Michelle Camuso, and Miles Landry.

Roger delighted in telling the tale of the Egyptian fortune teller, how she had been right about his children, and that his third and final marriage was indeed his happiest.

Family and friends are invited to a Celebration of Life at the Church of the Good Shepherd, 74 High Street, Wareham, Saturday, Feb. 23, at 11 a.m. Donations in Roger's memory may be made to MSPCA or Project Bread of Boston.