32
OAs in Action: True Stories from the First World War
hese identical twins were born within 10 minutes of each
other on 29 April 1892 at Kensington in London. When the
family relocated to Radstock in Somerset, the twins were
sent to school at King's College, Taunton where they made
a lot of runs for the cricket team. hey both won their
cricket colours for four consecutive seasons first opening
the batting together in 1907. Two years later, in their most
successful season they scored over 1150 runs between them.
Dudley was a right-hand batsman and a right-arm medium
pace bowler and he made his debut for Somerset in the
1914 season. Playing at he Oval against a Surrey side that
included Jack Hobbs, he made 32 runs and captured three
first innings wickets. In May his brother Sydney was also
selected, and the Evening Telegraph reported that 'for the
first time in the club's history twin brothers are playing for
Somerset'. Dudley was described as 'a brilliant batsman, and
has been presented with a bat by the Somerset Committee
in commemoration for his innings against Kent' where he
had carried his bat for 87 runs. His brother Sydney was
also described as 'a skillful batsman of whom much is to
be expected'. he paper commented that 'the brothers
resemble each other so closely that a comedy of errors
would probably be the result if they were at the wicket together' - they were as they both opened the innings! In
his fourth match against Sussex Dudley carried his bat for
an unbeaten 105, despite being injured and having to use
a runner, the twins putting on 75 runs for the first wicket.
he next match against Gloucestershire saw Sydney achieve
success, scoring 60 runs when 'he gave no chance and he
defied the bowlers for two hours and a half' according to
the report in the Western Daily Press. Dudley played many
more matches for the county than Sydney and in July took
five Yorkshire wickets, the only time he managed this feat,
as well as top scoring in both innings. Both brothers played
in the match against Gloucestershire at Bristol on 3 August
1914: the following day Britain entered the First World War.
At the beginning of the war Dudley served as a clerk in
the War Office Audit Office in Salisbury before being
commissioned into the horse transport section of the
Army Service Corps as a second lieutenant in April 1915. His
brother Sydney sought to enlist but was refused on medical
grounds. He underwent an operation at a Bristol hospital
and, after offering himself for service again, was accepted.
He left his job with a firm of Bristol accountants to enlist in
the R.A.M.C. in October 1914. In August 1915 he was given
a commission as a second lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers,
ARTHUR ERNEST SYDNEY RIPPON AND ALBERT DUDLEY ERIC RIPPON
As part of the school's own commemorations of the Centenary of the First World War we will be
re-telling the experiences of different OAs in each edition of the OA Club News over the next four
years. Some became well-known figures, others less so, but all we hope will give an insight into the
service of the over 430 OAs who fought in the Great War.