Mr Peter G.L. Vipan (Mining 1944)

Written by Mr Vipan, and John Bramley

Peter Vipan (in his own words)

Born: Madurai, South India, 5th November 1921

Father: Alfred Vipatlr C.I.E., A.e.G.I. (9/11/1884 - Jan 1947) Mother: Eulalie, Nee Lushington (28/01/1892 - 27/01/1982)

My father was born in Leicester, my mother in Bagshot. My father went to India in 1909, working as a Civil Engineer in the Indian Service of Engineers (PWD). My mother's father was a botanist in the Indian Forestry Service. They were married in Waltair, South India, in 1913 and had three children: Arthur, born in Madurai (15/10/1914 - 16/10/1944), who was in Bomber Command RAP and died in a night flying accident in 1944. Margaret, born in Kodaikanal, South India (29/07/1917 - 1977). She married in South Africa and died of lung cancer. Peter, see above.

My childhood until the age of nine was spent in South India, in various places including Madurai, Kodaikanal, the Godaveri district, Madras and Trivandrum. My early schooling was rather haphazard (I remember severe nuns in a convent in Kodaikanal) until I was brought home to Weybridge and a prep school called W allop (of all things!) where I spent a couple of years, before going back to India for a year when a specialist told me I should not read anything for twelve months. Returning to England, I was put into Sherborne Prep School for two years before going on to Sherborne School for four years. In the prep school I was head boy and captain of cricket; at Sherborne I was a house prefect, school shooting eight (Ashburton Shield at Bisley in 1934) and 2nd Fifteen rugby.

In 1940 I left school and entered Imperial College as a mining student (Royal School of Mines). I was called to a War Office Selection Board interview, following which I was directed to stay as an embryo Mining Engineer ("We want Mining Engineers, and we can't have women doing that job"). As a student I worked underground during the vacation at Geevor Tin Mine in Cornwall, Greenside Lead Mine in Cumbria, and New Sharlston Colliery in Yorkshire.

We lived as a family in a flat near Marble Arch from 1940 to 1944, and we had some exciting times in the blitz, particularly in the autumn and winter of 1940, when there were 90 nights in a row of air raids on London. By 1944 we had some variety - VI and V2 rockets! I was a member of His Majesty's Home Guard, and I sPent a lot of nights guarding the reservoirs at Primrose Hill. I will never forget the noise of the animals in Regents Park Zoo at dawn.

In 1944 I graduated (with a first, to my utter astonishment) and then worked for a time in opencast coal production near Sheffield before leaving for work in London. I boarded a ship in Glasgow on 22nd December 1944, and next morning found myself in the midst of a very large convoy. We spent Christmas "somewhere in the North Atlantic", with the escort dropping depth charges on Christmas Day, and left the convoy at Gibraltar nine days out from Glasgow. By the winter of 1944 the Mediterranean was clear of enemy ships and submarines, and we sailed on our own. We had put into a small North African port with engine trouble, and I remember it snowed quite hard, and there was a covering of snow on the shore line. At Port Said I remember how affected I was at the sight of a town fully lit up after dark - the first time I had seen that for five years. We arrived in Bombay, and I had no train or hotel bookings because of the need for secrecy in ships' movements (we had had warnings of a Japanese surface raider in the Indian Ocean), so I spent four nights in a tent waiting for a berth on the famous Bombay/Madras mail train. 36 hours trundling across India, including the Deccan, so I was glad it was the cool season. Another train from Madras to Bangalore, and eventually arrival ay my destination - The Kolar Goldfield.

I was allocated to Champion Reef Mine. They were short staffed, so I very quickly found myself in charge of a section of the mine with 300 men in it and 7000 feet below ground. Quite a shock to a young graduate. The work was always interesting and challenging, but sometimes hazardous and uncomfortable. Air temperatures of 1200 F were commonplace and one needed to drink a lot of water with salt; rock bursts could, and did, close up sections of the mine workings. At that time in the 1940's these mines were the deepest in the world, with development work going on 9000 feet below surface, or 6000 feet below sea-level.

Above ground, life was comfortable in the pleasant climate of the Bangalore Plateau (3000 feet above sea-level), and the facilities for golf, cricket, tennis, swimming and sailing were good - splendid for a young bachelor! As A subaltern in the Indian Auxiliary Force I expected to be called up dUring the troubles around Indian independence in 1947, but the Force was never used - probably because the ranks were full of Anglo-Indians who would be staying in India after independence.

By 1948 I was ready for pastures new, and I was offered a job in Devonshire in a small barytes mine near Exeter. I had lodgings in a farm in a little Village called Ashton, in the Teign Valley, and commuted to work by train on the branch line (now long closed) between Newton Abbot and Exeter. Two happy years, playing rugby for Exeter and cricket for Dunsford! In 1950 the mine was taken over by its major customer, Laporte Industries, and I was taken over with it and began a 35 year service with Laporte. I was moved to Westmorland in 1950 to become manager of Silverband barytes mine, near Appleby. Entrance to the mine was at 2500 feet above sea level in the Pennines, which made for interesting times in the winter! In 1952 I moved to London, and the head office of Laporte in Hanover Square, to become Specialist Mining Engineer to the Group, and overall manager of barytes mining in Westmorland and Devonshire. Also consulting work with the Fullers Earth Union operations in Surrey and Somerset, Peter Spence's bauxitic clay mines in Ayrshire and later managing a titanium mineral prospecting operation in Nyasaland (now Malawi). I lived in a small flat in St John's Wood.

In August 1956 I met Sheila Bum. We were engaged in November, and married in Bromley in 1957. We had a cottage in Westhumble, near Dorking, and both Robert and Laura were born in Dorking. In 1964 we all moved to Derbyshire and Laporte fluorspar mining operations in and around Eyam, where I worked until I retired in 1983.

Sheila and I grew so attached to Eyam and the Peak District that we stayed put in our cottage after my retirement and are still here!

The year of our move from Surrey to Derbyshire was rather hectic. In the spring I was sent by the company to Henley Management College on a 12 week residential course. We moved into our present cottage on 16th August, and I promptly departed on a business trip to the USA, Canada and Mexico, leaving brave Sheila with a brand new home and two children aged 6 and 4, who had to be ferried to and from a Matlock school every day. The choice of school actually proved a bad one in every way - Sheila had no-one with whom to share the school run, and then very soon the school got into financial trouble and had to close. We moved the children to Sheffield schools - Robert to Birkdale and Laura to Miss Naylor's and then the High School. Sheila found people with whom to share the school run and made some very good and lasting friendships thereby. Robert went to Sherborne School in 1971.

On arrival in Eyam we entered into Church life, Choosing Foolow Church at first because it was the only one of the three Churches in the Parish that had Sunday school activity for children. In 1977 we moved from Foolow to Eyam, and in 1978 when Jerry Colley retired I was invited to become Rector's Warden. I spent 5 rewarding years doing this job early in David Shaw's ministry, and there were a few bumps along the way.

During my career I kept close contact with my Chartered Institution (The Institution of Mining and Metallurgy), spending 10 years on the Council, as a Vice President for the last 3 years.

In lighter vein, I was a Juryman on the Barmote Court at Wirksworth and Eyam for 40 years from 1960, and also had the honour of being a fully-fledged member of the WRVS by virtue of doing Meals on Wheels with Sheila for several years immediately following my retirement.

By 1978 I was beginning to think about retirement, and decided that one of the things I would like to do was to play golf. I joined Sickleholme Golf Club, at Bamford. About this time I also joined Sheila as a member of the Sheffield School of Christian Psychotherapy and Counselling. Sheila had become involved through her work as a yoga teacher at Whiteley Wood Mental Health Clinic, where the psychiatrist in charge was a leading member of the SSCP. Before we could accept clients we went through therapy ourselves, and all this became a major interest over the next 20 years. The SSCP was a charity, and clients paid no fees of any kind, but it was forced to close in late 1999 when new regulations required all therapists to have formal academic qualifications which we did not possess.

Another retirement activity has been water colour painting, following a decision to go on an organised painting holiday in Switzerland in 1986. Further similar holidays followed, to Corfu and the Pyrenees, and I joined a painting group meeting weekly in Calver.

Other interests have been the Village Society, of which I was a committee member for a short period, and the (Derwent) PROBUS Club, which meets monthly at Grindleford.

My favourite activity is golf with the EGGS of Sickleholme. The initials stand for the Elderly Gentlemen's Golf Section, and this lively band meets every Tuesday morning when there is a draw for partners at about 8.30am. The EGGS membership is close to 100, and the draw ensures that we play with a lot of different people in the course of the year. This all builds a remarkable camaraderie which carries over into the sandwich lunch period after the golf.

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Originally published in 'Materials World', January 2009

Peter Vipan CEng FIMMM

Peter Vipan, who died in November five days after his 87th birthday, was, for 35 years, Mining Manager at Laporte Industries. He served on the Council of the former Institution of Mining and Metallurgy from 1969-80 and was Vice-President of the Institution from 1977 -80.

Peter was born in South India where his father worked as a Civil Engineer. He was educated at Sherborne School and entered Imperial College London as a mining student in 1940. After graduating with a First Class degree in 1944, followed by a brief period in opencast coal mining near Sheffield, he was employed at Champion Reef Mine in the Kolar Goldfield where, due to staff shortages, he quickly found himself in charge of a section of the mine with 300 men 7,OOOft below ground. In the 1940s these mines were the deepest in the world.

He returned to England in 1948 to become manager of a small barytes mine near Exeter that was taken over by Laporte Industries in 1950. As Laporte's specialist mining engineer, his subsequent career covered barytes mining in Devonshire and Westmoreland, fuller's earth extraction in Surrey, bauxitic clay in Ayrshire, and titanium mineral prospecting in Nyasaland (now Malawi), Africa. In 1964, Peter moved to Derbyshire to take charge of Laporte's fluorspar mining operation near Eyam, where he worked until he retired in 1983.

Peter was a keen sportsman who excelled at cricket and rugby, enjoying golf in his retirement. He continued to live in Eyam where he was widely respected for his contributions to the local community. To his colleagues. workmen and many friends he was always the perfect gentleman. He married Sheila in 1957 - she survives him, together with their children Robert and Laura, and their families.

John Bramley FREng FIMMM