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L/Cpl. Frederick Charles Sipson
British Army 2nd Battalion, B Company. Royal Irish Fusiliers
My Grandfather, Fred Sipson, transferred from the 1st Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment to the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers on the 17/9/36 to the rank of fusilier serving with B Company and within 6 months earned the rank of L/Cpl. On the 3/1/38 he left the UK with the 2nd battalion to serve in Malta for 278 days and then on to Palestine in 9/10/38-29/3/39 for a total of 172 days.
He served a further 4 years 73 days during the Siege of Malta until 10/6/43 where the Battalion was then relieved and sent to Egypt to recover from malnutrition and their ordeal. Fortunately my Grandfather was not chosen to go to Leros and was sent home from Egypt to the UK on the 30/5/44 in the wake of that fateful day that saw the decimation of the Battalion as POW's to Axis forces. Back in the UK the 2nd Battalion was reformed from elements of the Territorial Army battalion of the regiment who had not already seen service however never again during the war was the Battalion to see action and spent the remainder of the time at home.
My Grandfather was then posted to the Infantry Training Centre in N.Ireland as permanent staff and spent many years as a training instructor, however my grandfather at the end of his posting had a growing family of his own and was requested to move back to the mainland UK, with the strain this would place on his family he decided to finish his full time service on the 17/9/59 having served 23 years and reaching the rank of Sergeant as the Army was his life he transferred to the Territorial Army the 5th Battalion Royal Irish fusiliers and continued training and administrating soldiers in the Banbridge Co Down branch until where he finally retired the Army on the 31/3/67 as a Colour Sergeant.
