INSPIRED by ‘a very full life’, Redditch man Roger Henry Lippett had written his memoir. From growing up on the Batchley Estate, he went on to serve in the Royal Navy and wants to share his story.
He was born on January 30 1939 on the council estate, being given his dad’s name Henry as his middle name.
He sheds light on his life, family and friends as a social record that may be of interest to his children, grandchildren and the people of Redditch. Although he said he had never achieved great wealth or fame he felt his life had moments worth recounting.
In his words: “I now live in the beautiful city of Plymouth in Devon but I will always be a Batchley boy.
“Far have I travelled, and much have I seen and this is my story, serialised in the Redditch Standard.”
Chapter 1
My dad, Henry Thomas Lippett (known by everyone as Harry Lippett) was born in Studley and my mother, Florence Mabel Evans, was born in Alvechurch.
When they were courting my dad would walk or cycle the seven miles or so between Studley and Alvechurch to see her.
After they were married they lived for a while with dad’s mother (granny Lippett, Charlotte Isabella) in Studley in a small cottage in what was known as the ‘Foredraught’ (now demolished) before moving to a house called ‘Elmhurst’ on Redditch Road, Alvechurch.
The house had been left to Alec, my mother’s brother, and Violet, my mother’s sister, by their father.
The house, though set in a very large garden was not very big and so my mum and dad and auntie Vi moved out to make more room for my uncle Alec who suffered from polio and spent his life wearing a heavy leg iron.
He was a lovely man and life must have been very difficult for him with what was basically an iron bar fixed around his ankle and around his thigh.
My mum and dad managed to get a council house on Batchley Estate where I was born and raised and lived very happily until I was 15 years old before leaving home to join the Royal Navy.
These were happy years and I count myself lucky to have had such caring parents and such a wonderful childhood.
In our house lived, as well as mum and dad, my brother Michael, two years younger than me, and later my youngest brother Martyn, five years younger than me.
Also there was my big sister Jean who is nine years older than me. I also had a big brother, Alan, who was ten years older than me but who I never remember living at home as he had already joined the Royal Navy as an artificer.
The early years, the war years, between 1939 and 1945, I remember little about, being too young to take in many of the events which were taking place in the world around me.
My earliest memory is starting school, at Bridge Street Boys Infants. On my first day I was the last in the classroom – all the other boys were sat around against the wall and I had the only chair, albeit with its back missing. I was not pleased.
I remember my teacher, Mrs James, and a large (to me it seemed life-size) rocking horse outside the door, underneath the veranda.
In the afternoons we had little beds in rows, and were expected to have a nap.
Little did I realise at the time it would be good training for life in the Royal Navy when long weeks at sea were spent keeping watch in the control room throughout the night and catching up with sleep in the afternoons when possible.
Next week – Roger looks at life in Batchley in the 1940s and 1950s.
