First of many

Harold Edwin Hippisley Killed in Action, 23/10/1914

Harold Hippisley

 Killed in action: Second Lieutenant Harold Hippisley, aged 24, a former pupil at King’s Bruton.

Recently Married

A School Prefect in his last year at King’s, on leaving school, he entered the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. He then spent time in land-agency work. He was about to secure a post under the Board of Agriculture when the War broke out. He obtained a commission as a Second Lieutenant with the 1st Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment. He went to France in August, 1914, and fought almost continuously from then until he was killed in defence of Langemarck. A particular sadness is lent to his death by the fact that his marriage took place on the very day of his leaving to join his regiment. 

Eyewitness Account

Hippisley was in charge of a platoon of A Company of the 1st Gloucesters, which was blocking the Langemarck-Koekuit road. The young lieutenant and his men gunned down hundreds of Germans – they could hardly miss – but still they kept on coming.  Private Barton, one of the few survivors of the day, takes up the story:  “About this time (10.30 a.m.), Lieutenant Hippisley, the platoon commander, was hit. The bullet struck the middle of the forehead. He was attended by his servant, Private Brown, who was under the impression that if he kept the brain from oozing out of the hole he would be all right. After a time he was convinced that the wound was fatal and that his master had no chance. He then divided his time between the parapet, where he would fire a few rounds, and then return to Lieutenant Hippisley.  Between his concern for his master and his desire for revenge on the Germans, he seemed to have gone crazy.”   His commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Lovett, writes:  “Hippisley’s company was occupying a trench which was heavily attacked by hostile infantry. There was a severe rifle fire by which his platoon lost sixty percent in killed and wounded. By the steadiness of the men at this point, due to the confidence in their officer, the situation was maintained. Had the enemy in their great numbers penetrated at this point, the result would have been most disastrous. I need hardly say how popular he was amongst everyone, and how deeply we deplore his loss.”  2nd Lieutenant Baxter describes how the left flank was exposed:  “The Germans enfiladed our trenches. The casualties began in real earnest. Harold doing his duty nobly was shot in the head. He died like a soldier and a gallant Englishman. The Gloucester Regiment are proud of him and I am proud to say he was my friend.”

Keen and Gifted Sportsman

Hippisley was an outstanding sportsman and leader; he captained the three major teams – Football, Hockey and Cricket – for an unprecedented three years, and he won the Ridley Cup three times. He had the rare distinction of playing cricket for Somerset when he was still 18, a few weeks after he left School. He also continued with his Hockey, playing for Somerset, as well as for the West of England in two international trial matches in the spring of 1914. He was a regular visitor at King’s between 1909 and 1914, playing for the Old Brutonians as well as in invitational teams in football, hockey and cricket. In his last cricket game at Bruton, in May, 1914, he scored 99 to ensure victory for the Bruton Nomads over the School. Intellectually he was not especially gifted by nature, but by honest and conscientious perseverance he achieved results which brought credit alike to himself and to his School. In athletics he was eminently naturally endowed, but here again it was not the success – which seemed to come so easily to him – that appealed most forcibly to those who watched his performances, so much as the spirit in which that success was won.

All That is Best in Public School Life

Essentially a trier, he never knew what it was to be beaten and was never satisfied with anything short of his best. The peculiar charm of his personality will be readily recalled by all who knew him here: modest and unassuming, healthy in mind as in body, cheery and equable in temper. He stood for all that is best in public school life, and has left behind him a host of friends to whom his memory will always be a treasured recollection. It is sad indeed to think of his life being cut short on the very threshold of so promising a career, and it is sadder still to think of the domestic happiness which we had all anticipated for him, coming to so untimely an end.