Sunday 30 May 2010

Lt Frank Lipp, 2nd Bn, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles)

Lieutenant Frank Lipp of the 2nd Battalion, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), died of wounds on the 30th May 1916. At the time of his death he was attached to the 8th Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers. Frank was 24 years old at the time of his death. He was the son of James and Eliza Mary Lipp of La Perouse, Fochabers, Morayshire. He died at the station hospital in Karachi and was buried in the Karachi Cemetery (now Pakistan but at that time, part of India). He is commemorated on the Delhi Memorial (India Gate).

Frank's medal index card indicates that he first arrived overseas at Gallipoli on the 23rd October 1915. At that stage he was a second lieutenant. He later transferred to the RWF. The address given on his MIC is "J Lipp Esq, Hadlow House, Fochabers, Scotland." Today, Hadlow House at 22 The Square, Fochabers, is an antiques' shop.

Frank's brother, Vernon Robertson Lipp, also died during the First World War. He was a second lieutenant serving with the 5th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, but attached to the 12th Battalion. He was 26 years old when he was killed in action on the 17th June 1916. He is buried in Berks Cemetery Extension in Belgium. Vernon's medal index card gives his wife's address at Lorne Grove, Radcliffe-on-Trent, Nottingham. She was Elsie C Thompson and the couple's marriage was registered at Lincoln in the June quarter of 1916. Thus Elsie was a wife and a widow within the space of three months.

Frank and Vernon Lipp both appear on the 1901 Scotland census as visitors - along with many others - at the Invercauld Arms in Glenmuick, Aberdeenshire. The boys' ages are noted as nine and eleven respectively. Together in 1901, fate would see them die within three weeks of each other in the service of their King and Country, fifteen years later.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Sources:

Ancestry (MIC)
Soldiers Died in The Great War
Army Service Numbers
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission

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