BORN HULL 1879. NOTE HIS SURNAMES IS SOMETIMES SPELT AS GIBSON, JIPSON & JEPSON- CWGC RECORDS?
ELDEST SON OF ROBERT JIPSON (1856-1938) AND KATE ELLEN BLENKIN (1860-1935), OF 23, EXCHANGE STREET, HULL. ONE OF 14 CHILDREN MANY OF WHICH DIED IN INFANCY. HIS FATHER WAS A GRAND STONE MASON, WORKING FOR THE HULL CORPORATION.
MARRIED IN 1906, AGED 27. HUSBAND OF ROSE EDWARDS (1882-1909). THEY HAD ONE SON, CHARLES ROBERT GIBSON (1909-2001).
HIS OCCUPATION WAS LISTED AS A MASON (1913 KELLYS DIRECTORY). HE WAS WELL KNOWN ON HULL FISH DOCKS.
HE SERVED 3 YEARS ON A MINESWEEPER AND WAS LOST AT SEA, ON 22/09/1919, AGED 40. HE IS COMMEMORATED ON THE TOWER HILL MEMORIAL, LONDON, UK.
HE WAS A WIDOWER AND LEFT SON, CHARLES ROBERT JIPSON, LIVING AT 23 EXCHANGE STREET, HULL.
HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL, ON 30/10/1919. *
HIS NAME “ROBERT JIBSON” IS INSCRIBED ON THE STONE PILLARS, INSIDE ST MARYS’ CHURCH, SCULCOATES LANE, HULL, WITH HIS YOUNGER BROTHER, HERBERT JIPSON, DURHAM LIGHT INFANTRY, WHO WAS KILLED ON 10/04/1917.
THREE BOTHERS, SERVED AT 23 EXCHANGE STREET – CORPORAL, GEORGE JEPSON, 6TH EAST YORKSHIRE PIONEERS, WOUNDED AT THE DARDANELLES; PERCY JEPSON, HMS ‘IMPREGNABLE’; AND ROBERT JEPSON, MINESWEEPERS.
Helcia was a 230 GRT steam trawler completed in 1906 by Cochrane & Sons Shipbuilders Ltd. for Northwold Steam Fishing Co. Ltd. She was registered in Grimsby as GY.152. Her owner at the time of her loss was Sylvia Steam Fishing Co. Ltd. She was posted missing on not returning from a North Sea fishing trip on 22 September 1919 and may well have struck a mine. There were no survivors. The names of nine crew are recorded on the Tower Hill Naval Memorial, London.
