Pte 17635 Samson Harry Lipton

• Age: 22
• From: Manhattan, New York
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 19th Btn
• K.I.A Friday 30th June 1916
• Commemorated at: Cerisy-gailly Mil Cem
  Panel Ref: II.L.8

Sampson Lipman was born on 7^th September 1893 in Manhattan, New York.  His parents Judah Joseph Lipman, born in Russian Poland, and Katie Soberman, born in London, married in Mile End, London in 1888.  Sampson was the fourth, and eldest son, of six children.  His siblings were Jessie, Leah, Beatrice, Betsey, and Frank.

In 1891 they are living at 227 Cable Street, St. George in the East, East End of London. (Cable Street became the focus for an infamous anti Fascist demostration on 04th October 1936). Father Joseph is a tailor’s machinist; they have daughters Jessie 2, and Leah, 10 months.  Shortly after the census daughter Leah died, and the parents, with daughter Jessie, sailed to New York, where their daughter Beatrice is born in April 1892.  Their first son, Sampson, is born there in 1893, and by 1895 they are back in England, in St. George’s in the East, where Betsey and Frank are born.   In March 1898 Sampson, 4,  and his sister Beatrice, 5, living at 80 Buxton Street, enroll at Deal Street School, Tower Hamlets.  After Deal Street School, Sampson attended Cowper Street Foundation (a school for middle class boys in Islington).

The family has moved by 1911, as the census finds them at 25 South Burn Terrace, a nine room house in West Hartlepool.  Father Joseph, a naturalized British citizen, is a tailor’s machinist.  Sister Jessie, 21, is a tailoress,  Beatrice, 19, is an elementary school teacher, Sampson is 17,  a shipping office clerk,   Betsey is 15 and Frank 13.  Living with them is a 21 year old lodger, a tailor’s presser, from Russia.

By 1914 the family has moved to Liverpool, living at 52 Saxony Road.  

Sampson enlisted in September 1914, in 19^th Battalion (Pals) of The King’s Liverpool Regiment, using the name Samson Lipton.

Formed on 07^th September 1914 the 19^th Battalion trained locally at Sefton Park and remained living at home or in rented accommodation until November 1914. They then moved to the hutted accommodation at Lord Derby’s estate at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 19th Battalion alongside the other three Pals battalions left Liverpool via Prescot Station for further training at Belton Park, Grantham. They remained here until September 1915 when they reached Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain. 

He shipped from Folkestone with his battalion, disembarking at Boulogne on 7^th November 1915.  

In the new year the Pals battalions take up positions in the south of the Somme line, near Carnoy, and by the end of April are in the front line near Maricourt.  The last week in May they move out of the line to Abbeville for specialist training for the ‘Big Push’.  

The opening day of the British bombardment for the coming Battle of the Somme is 24^th June. According to the battalion war diary, the bombardment continues, with occasional casualties, and on the 28^th the battalion is relieved by the 20^th K.L.R. and moves to Bray.

On the 30^th June the battalion moves, in small parties, to its battle position, commencing at 3.30 a.m. behind Z.1.  Nos. 21780 Pte Griffiths, 17706 Pte Rymer, and 17635 Pte Lipton, are killed in action.

Sampson (Harry) Lipton (Lipman) was buried close to where he fell in Maricourt Military Cemetery and his grave marked with a cross.  The cemetery was at the south-east corner of the village, on the road to Clery. It was begun by French troops in December, 1914, and was known to the French by the name of Ferme Caudron. It was taken over by British troops in August, 1915, and used until July 1916.  After the war when graves were concentrated his body was removed and reinterred in Cerisy-Gailly Cemetery where he now rests. The five letter Hebrew abbreviation inscribed inside the Star of David on his gravestone can be translated as:

“May his soul be bound up in the bounds of eternal life”.  

Sampson earned his three medals. His effects went to his father Joseph, and his mother Kate, then living at 19 Church Road, Wavertree, was awarded his pension.       

His death was announced in the Liverpool Echo on 19^th July 1916, under the heading:

“One of the Eager Ones” –

“Private Sampson H. Lipton (Lipman) of the “Pals”, whose home was at 52 Saxony Road, has been killed.  He was in commercial life prior to the war. A single man, he joined the forces in September 1914.  He was educated at Cowper Street Foundation, London.”

His death was also reported in the Jewish Chronicle:

LIPTON - On the 30th June in France, Pte. Sampson H Lipton (Lipman), Liverpool Pals, aged 22, eldest son of Mr and Mrs J Lipman, 52, Saxony Road, Liverpool. Deeply mourned by his heartbroken parents, sisters, brothes, relatives and a large circle of friends. God rest his dear soul.   

Private S. H. Lipton is commemorated on the following Memorials

British Jewry Roll of Honour

Liverpool Hebrew School Roll of Honour. 

Stepney Jewish Lads Club.

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