Memorial Windows To General Kippenberger

Press, Volume C, Issue 29468, 21 March 1961, Page 11

Memorial Windows To General Kippenberger

Two stained-glass windows commemorating the life and service of Major-General Sir Howard Kippenberger, one of the most famous old boys of the Christchurch Boys’ High School, will be unveiled after the Anzac Day service at the school. The windows have been presented to the school by the Old Boys’ Association, which is now making an appeal to the old boys for £lOOO to meet the cost of the windows and their installation and brass plaques which will be fitted to the wall beneath them. Brigadier J. T. Burrows, who was a close friend of Sir Howard Kippenberger, will unveil the windows. He served with him in the Middle East and Italy, and succeeded him in command of the 20th Battalion.

The windows, which will be within the precincts of the war memorial, will overlook the landing which gives access to the assembly hall. The light from them will shine on the two memorial volumes in which are inscribed the names of old boys who served the two world wars. It will also fall on the carved panels bearing the names of those who fell in the Second World War.

A design by Mr J. A. Johnston, former lecturer in fine arts at the Canterbury School of Art, was sent to Mr W. Wilson of Edinburgh, who returned copies in sketch form of his adaptation of the drawings. After minor alterations had been suggested, the drawings were returned to Scotland, and Mr Wilson was commissioned to produce the windows, each of which measures approximately Bft. by 4ft. 6in.

The eastern window incorporates in a slightly modified form the badge of the Ist Canterbury Regiment, with

which Sir Howard Kippenberger was intimately associated. It is a reminder of his services m the First World War and of the invaluable Territorial work he did between the wars. Inscribed beneath the badge is the following extract from his preface to the school war memorial magazine: “In each of these great struggles we fought against the powers of evil incarnate upon the earth, and by God’s blessing we prevailed. The struggle still continues and will forever...”

Beneath the design in the western window is an extract from the book of Micah wich Sir Howard Kippenberger found a particular comfort once the decision to commit men to battle (and probably to death) had been made. This reads: “And what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly and to. love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”