SERJEANT ROBERT HENRY PIPE
OXFORDSHIRE AND BUCKINGHAMSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY
29TH MARCH 1918 AGE 26
BURIED: ETRETAT CHURCHYARD EXTENSION, FRANCE
William and Emma Pipe had four children: Percy, William, Robert and Edmund. All four were killed in the First World War - all within a year of each other.
William John, the second brother, was the first one to die; a Private in the Honourable Artillery Company he was killed in action on the 3 May 1917 just under two months after his arrival in France. He was 28. Private Pipe's body was never found and he's commemorated on the Arras Memorial.
Edwin George, the youngest brother, served as a Lance Corporal in the 2nd/4th Battalion Ox & Bucks Light Infantry and was killed in action on 10 October 1917. He was 21. Lance Corporal Pipe's body was never found and he is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial.
The eldest brother, Percy Dalby, a Private in the 2nd/4th Ox & Bucks Light Infantry, died on the opening day of the German Spring Offensive, 21 March 1918. He was 32. Private Pipe's body was never found and he's commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial.
Eight days after his eldest brother's death, Serjeant Robert Henry Pipe, 2nd/4th Battalion Ox & Bucks Light Infantry, died of wounds in a base hospital at Etretat. He was 26. He is buried in the churchyard there. His father chose his inscription.