Joseph Lippiatt
Memorial: Olveston
Regiment: The Welsh Regiment
Medals: 1914–15 Star, British War Medal, Next of Kin Memorial Plaque 1914 - 1921, Victory Medal
Rank and number: Private 24603
Parents: Charles and Maria Lippiatt
Marital status: Married
Home address: 4 Heathfield Terrace, Fforest fach, Swansea
Pre-war occupation: Brick Setter
Date of birth: 1876
Place of birth: Alveston, Bristol
Date of death: 12/01/1917
Buried/Commemorated at: Amara War Cemetery (XXV.), Iraq
Further information:
Joseph Lippiatt was the youngest son of Charles and Maria Lippiatt of Rudgeway, Bristol. Before he was 14, his mother had died and he and his older brother Sydney, both of whom worked on farms, lived at home with their father, brothers George and Charles having already left
Joseph was nearly 38 years old when he enlisted at Swansea on the 14th of January 1915 where he was assigned to the 12th Battalion of the Welsh Regiment. Immediately prior to the outbreak of war, Joseph had been a brick setter living at 4 Heathfield Terrace in Fforest fach near Swansea with his wife, Amy Louise, where they raised their family of Thomas, Sydney, Dorothy, Elsie and Cicily
Shortly after joining, Joseph was transferred to the recently formed 8th Service Battalion, who were now identified as Pioneers. From February 1915 the Battalion was stationed at North Camp, Aldershot, until June 12th when it entrained for Avonmouth for the sea voyage to Gallipoli. The Battalion gave a good account of itself in appalling conditions. The flies, bad at any time, multiplied enormously on account of the mass of men and animals confined in small areas and because of the unburied corpses, which lay between the opposing forces. Dysentery and diarrhoea raged like a plague. The Battalion was working both in and on the trenches on Chocolate Hill and quarrying, digging and making roads at Lala Baba. On November 26th it rained for 24 hours with a devastating south-west gale. Men and mules were swept out of the trenches and drowned. For two days it snowed and for two further days it froze. Two hundred men of the Welsh Regiment perished, mercifully the remnant embarked for Egypt on December 19th 1915
By March 1916, the Battalion was in Mesopotamia and by January 1917 was located some 100 miles to the south-east of Baghdad. Their work alternated between making roads in the area of Kut-al-Hai and improving the bunds on the Hai River in addition to making communication trenches and general sapper work. The Turks were engaged in an area known as the Hai Triangle and continuous heavy artillery bombardment from our own guns had broken the bunds and caused the river level to rise. By the night of the 11th of January all four companies of the 8th Battalion were in communication trenches preparing to go up to the firing line. The next morning six of the Battalion were wounded with Lieutenant H Johns and two men from the ranks killed by Turkish fire. That day, Joseph Lippiatt died from his wounds and is buried in the Amara War Cemetery (XXV.), Iraq
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
Forces War Records and CWGC