Notes
Recovered 21.08.2023 from www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/585712/g-fripp/
SECOND LIEUTENANT G FRIPP
Dorsetshire Regiment 1st Bn.
Date of Death 04 June 1918
Buried CABARET-ROUGE BRITISH CEMETERY, SOUCHEZ VIII. M. 14. France
http://www.piddlevalley.info/history_great_war.php#26
SECOND LIEUTENANT GEORGE FRIPP (Piddletrenthide).1ST BATTALION, DORSETSHIRE REGIMENT
George Fripp was born in January 1884 in Sturminster Marshall and was a shepherd before he enlisted in the Dorsets in October 1903. He served with the 1st Battalion in India but left the army to join the Hampshire Police at Andover.
He returned to the 1st Battalion on 2nd August 1914, two days before war was declared and, because of his earlier service, was given the rank of Lance-Corporal.
The 1st Dorsets were in Belfast and embarked from there for France on 14th August. George Fripp remained behind with the rear party and joined the Battalion on 4th September with ninety other reinforcements. The Battalion, by this time, had fought at Mons and Le Cateau and were retreating with the rest of the British Expeditionary Force. They held the German Army at the Marne.
After only nine days in action, Fripp was wounded and returned to England to recover. While at home, he married Dorothy Lottie Bowles in Dorchester on 20th January 1915. Her father was a Superintendant in the Hampshire Police. The couple settled in Box Cottage, Smiths Lane, Piddletrenthide, and their daughter, Christine, was born in 1916.
George recovered from his wounds and went back to the Battalion, who were now on the Ypres Salient. He would have been at Hill 60 near Ypres where, on 1st May 1915, the Germans launched the first gas attack against British troops (PVN&V May/June 2015), which caused loses of over 600 killed and wounded to the Dorsets.
Other major actions in which he was involved included the first day of the Battle of the Somme - 1st July 1916 - when the Battalion was reduced from 650 men to 323 in the hell of Authuille Wood (PVN&V July/August 2016). He was wounded again, but the date and place are not recorded. He would also have been in the closing stages of the Battle of Passchendaele in December 1917.
By May 1918 he had risen to the rank of Company Sergeant Major and, on the 19th of that month he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. At that time, 1st Dorsets were in the line at Hamlincourt, a few miles south of Arras. On the night of 20th/21st May two companies made a raid on the German Lines. The raid was preceded by a two-minute artillery barrage which fell short of the enemy line and caused heavy casualties amongst the Dorsets. Despite this, the raid continued, and they withdrew after 14 minutes. The enemy were in greater strength than anticipated but it was estimated that the raid killed about 50 of them.
The Dorsets casualties amounted to 84 killed and wounded, of whom 7 were officers. The action was described as "one of the finest raids of the war and an example of the true British spirit".
George Fripp was wounded in this raid and died of his wounds on 4th June 1918. He is buried in the Cabaret Rouge Cemetery, Souchez, between Arras and Lens. His medals are in the Keep Museum in Dorchester. He was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre, but there is no record of what action resulted in this award.
One small and sad end to his story is that there was delay by the War Office in sending his wife her widow's allowance. His file in the National Archives has some very touching letters from her pleading for payment, the last one ending "without the money I don’t know what I shall do".