Howard Kippenberger
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Major-General Sir Howard Kippenberger, KBE CB DSO ED, (28 January 1897 - 5 May 1957), was a New Zealand soldier during World War II.
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[edit] Early life
He was born in Ladbrooks, near Christchurch, the son of a schoolmaster who later became a farmer at Waimate. He was educated at Christchurch Boys' High School and later at Canterbury University College.
Kippenberger qualified as a solicitor in 1920 and later became manager and then a partner of the Rangiora branch of a Christchurch legal firm.
[edit] Military Service
At 18 he volunteered for active service in the First World War. As a private in the 1st Canterbury Regiment he took part in four attacks on the Somme during the autumn of 1916. He was repatriated after being seriously wounded in the right arm.
On the outbreak of the Second World War he was given command of 20th Battalion, New Zealand Division. He was captured and escaped in North Africa in 1941. Kippenberger was given command of the 5th New Zealand Brigade in North Africa and in 1944, in Italy, was promoted to General Officer Commanding 2nd New Zealand Division. He was wounded by a land-mine in Italy, losing a leg and convalescencing in England.
[edit] After the War
On his return to New Zealand he was until 1946 head of Relocation of New Zealand Prisoners of War, then Head of the War History Branch at the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He was Dominion President of the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association from 1948–55.
He died in Wellington, New Zealand on 5 May 1957.
[edit] Recent Honour
In 2006 the Victoria University of Wellington announced the creation of the Sir Howard Kippenberger Chair in Strategic Studies.
It was generously supported by the Weston Foundation, chaired by his grandson Guy Weston whose mother Mary Weston was Kippenberger's daughter (she was the Sister-in-law of Galen Weston).
[edit] Kippenberger Research Library
The Kippenberger Research Library is an extensive collection covering a wide range of military subjects, with an emphasis on all major wars involving New Zealanders. The Kippenberger Research Library is located at the Army Museum Waiouru. [1]
The Kippenberger Collection [2] is a collection of books and journals collected by Major General Sir Howard Kippenberger from the age of twelve and he continued his passion until his death in 1957. Many of the books have been annotated in the margins by Kippenberger as he read them and gives an insight into his thinking on military warfare and strategy.
The collection was purchased from the estate in 1957 by the New Zealand Army and gifted to the Army Museum.
