Albert Tipping (30 Jul 1922 - 9 Dec 2017)

1465273 Gunner Albert Tipping, who has died aged 95, was mentioned in Dispatches in August 1945, along with his comrades Capt. Douglas Bishop and Signaller Joe Hurrell, for their roles in the invasion of the Walcheren Islands. Albert volunteered to take part in an expedition with the 47 Royal Marine Commandos as a forward Observation Post (OP) signaller. The Walcheren Islands were of strategic importance. It was Albert and Joe’s job to signal back the coordinates of the German Army (during the battle) to the Royal Artillery on the other side of the Scheldt Estuary.
Capt. Bishop, Joe Hurrell, Albert and a commando boarded their RN Weasel craft at 1 am on the 1 November 1944. Unfortunately, it was soon swamped by large waves in the middle of the Estuary and sank like a stone. Suffice to say that all the maps, wireless sets, batteries etc. were lost. The party (Capt. Bishop, Joe and Albert) got a lift to shore on a nearby Buffalo craft. For the next two days, the party followed a commando around Walcheren in the midst of battle, and under heavy shell and hand fire, transmitting coordinates back to the 15th Med. Regt. Royal Artillery on the other side of the Estuary.

One incident that stuck in Albert’s memory was when he was trying to brew a cup of tea one evening in a slit trench. He heard a posh English-speaking voice call out, “surrender, you are surrounded”. To which a Cockney voice replied, “up the Arsenal”, and at the same time opened up with an automatic weapon. Within seconds, the night sky was ablaze with light from tracer bullets and mortars, and the Commandos once again proved to be the better combatants. Needless to say, Albert didn’t get his cup of tea!

The party returned to the 15th Med. Regt. R.A. on the 3 November. Capt. Bishop commented in his report that the return to the regiment was the hardest job of all. The weather deteriorated and the three of them had to make their way back to Westkapelle on foot. On reaching the beach, the battle-fatigued party had to wait for hours for a RN craft to pick them up. They then had to swim out to the craft in full kit in icy cold waters. Joe Hurrell couldn’t swim, so Albert and Capt. Bishop got on either side of Joe, and somehow by superhuman effort they got Joe and themselves onto the ML. The subsequent journey to Ostend proved to be squally and they were all horrendously seasick. However, they were heartened by the kindly treatment from the sailors onboard. The party was welcomed back to the Regt. by their colonel, who was exceedingly proud of their efforts.

Albert was always impressed by the proficiency, courage and sacrifice of the 47 RN Commandos during the Walcheren campaign. The RN Commandos suffered heavy losses, and the campaign remains to this day a major part of 47 RN Commando history.

Before all of this, Albert joined the Worcestershire and Oxfordshire Yeomanry in the Territorial Army on the 9 May 1939, with his great and lifelong childhood friend, Les Jackson, who later changed his name to John Kenneally, and who subsequently won a VC. The pair joined up to see the sea and have an adventure, and they got into many scrapes together. To join up, Albert lied about his age, and gave it as the 1 May 1921, which stayed in his NHS records until the end of his life. He served under Major Ronald Cartland, brother of Barbara Cartland. Sadly, Major Cartland (who was very kind to the young Albert) and much of the regiment were later killed during the evacuation of Dunkirk. (Albert was too young to take part in the expedition sent to Dunkirk.)

Albert was called up in 1940, and joined the Royal Artillery as a wireless operator because he had taught himself Morse Code when listening to his crystal radio set at home as a boy. He served as a wireless operator throughout the duration of the war. Albert served on Drakes Island and Breakwater Fort in Plymouth Sound, both being critical to the defence of Plymouth and the surrounding area, until the D-Day invasion. He retained a lifelong interest in, and love of, the Plymouth area, and lived there twice during his life; once in the 1970s and then again in the 1980s.

Albert was posted to the 15th Medium Regt R.A. Field on the 8 February 1943. He landed in Normandy on the 7 July 1944, and was initially based near Caen, where there was heavy fighting. His dear beloved friend, Tony Curati, died near Caen on the 26 July 1944, helping Albert repair a communications line. Tony was hit by German mortar fire. Albert later went back to visit Tony’s grave in Normandy, and to remember him and his bravery, subsequently in the 1990s.

Albert was demobbed in 1946, after spending a year in Schnackenberg in Germany, where he learnt to speak fluent German, and fraternised with the locals! He first learnt to speak German during a prolonged stay with septicaemia in a field hospital, from an Austrian Jewish soldier in the next bed to him, called Freddie Edwards. Albert continued to speak German with an Austrian accent for the rest of his life. He even chatted in German to an Eastern German lady, on a later visit to Colditz Castle, when in his 70s, on a War Research Society trip.

Albert was born in the back-to-backs in the centre of Birmingham, and lived there with his parents Albert Henry and Mary Ann Tipping, his two sisters, Rose and Edna, and his young brother Gerrard (at 2 Back, 49 Wrentham Street). George V (grandfather of the Queen) was monarch at the time of his birth in 1922. Albert spent 2 years in an open-air school from the age of 5, because he had a weak chest, and the Health Authority believed that he might not live for very long! How wrong could they have been. Albert was devastated by the untimely death of his sister, Edna, in 1934, aged 14 in a road traffic accident. Even though the house in Wrentham Street was small, it was always full of love and animals, as his father was a breeder of dogs and birds. Albert retained a lifelong love of animals, and in particularly, a pet cat called Solomon.

Albert married Wren Ivy Exton on the 27 March 1948, aged 25, at All Saints Church in Kings Heath. They were married for 69 years and received two cards of congratulation from the Queen for their 60th and 65th wedding anniversaries.

In common with many bereaved people during the war, Albert was a spiritualist during and shortly after the war. He and Ivy were also members of the Physic Research Centre and they used to go ‘ghost hunting’. Albert even built some electrical equipment to detect ghosts. Sadly, they never found one, but they did have a jolly good time trying to, and the stories of their escapades were some of Albert’s funniest.

Albert was a gifted and self-taught engineer, who could turn his hand to almost anything, including mending cars, electrical appliances and televisions. Albert completely rewired one house that he owned, and installed gas central heating all by himself (albeit with some guidance from brother Gerrard and nephew John). Albert had numerous jobs during his career. He was a keen socialist, Labour Party Member, and trade unionist. He served as a shop steward for many years, including with the notorious Red Robbo, at British Leyland. In his later life, he and Ivy owned and ran two shops, including Elliot’s Hire Centre in Okehampton, where he became talented at repairing broken hired equipment destroyed by builders and farmers alike.

Albert was a man of eclectic talents and interests, including being a big Shirley Bassey fan and a lover of Goethe (18th century German poet). He loved driving and would think nothing of a day trip down to Plymouth from Birmingham (or visa-versa), and he continued to drive until he was 90. And even in his 90s, he talked about taking Ivy out on trips in their car.

Albert is survived by Ivy, two children, three grandchildren and a great-grandson.

Albert Tipping was born on July 30, 1922. He died on the 9 December 2017 aged 95.