Leonard Lipple was born on 15 August 1893 in Bristol, England. The youngest of ten children to George Lipple and Eliza Oak, he emigrated to Western Australia in his late teenage years and by 1910 had settled in the Mid West coastal city of Geraldton, working as a labourer.
It’s likely Jim grew up playing football as a child in England, after all, he lived just a 15 minute walk from Ashton Gate, home ground of 1909 FA Cup finalists Bristol City. In Geraldton, a three-team league had kicked off in 1913 and during its’ third season Jim wore the light blue and white of the Thistle club.
Jim enlisted as a Private with the 11th Battalion in August 1915. He embarked from Fremantle late in the year and on arriving in Egypt began preparing for life in the trenches on the Western Front. A few weeks after being made Lance Corporal in June 1916, he suffered a gun shot wound to right leg in fighting around the French village of Pozieres. Evacuated to England, Jim was admitted to the 2nd Northern General Hospital in Leeds where he remained for three months. Classified “B.1.A.” (fit for duty but not ready for the frontline) he was discharged to No.1 Command Depot, Perham Downs, and spent his days regaining his strength and training.
Jim rejoined his unit in France in mid-May 1917 and in the space of five months was promoted to Corporal and then Sergeant. The 11th Battalion were engaged in the Battle of Passchendaele, seeing action at Westhoek, Broodeseinde and Zonnebeke, before being withdrawn to rest at Bologne. They ended the year on the frontline around Messines, Belgium. Jim was wounded in the buttock by an exploding shell in early January 1918 and spent seven weeks in hospital. Subsequently, during mid-year operations to defend against the German Spring Offensive, he was shot in the left arm and evacuated to hospital in Colchester, England, where the diagnosis was a compound fracture of the ulna.
Declared medically unfit, he returned to Australia in September.
In 1919 Jim married Elsie Anderson and the newlyweds set-up home in Nolba, 50km north of Geraldton, where they’d welcomed the arrival of four sons. For the rest of his days Jim worked as a farmer. He served his nation a second time during 1939-1942, as a dockyard police officer in Fremantle with the Royal Australian Navy.
Leonard Lipple passed away on 1 January 1946 in Geraldton at the age of 52.