George Hewlett Tipper died on 23rd April, 1947, at the age of 66, after a long illness.
He was educated at Kendal Grammar School and at Clare College, Cambridge, graduating with the B.A. degree in 1903. In 1907 he obtained his M.A. degree. He was appointed to the Geological Survey of India in December, 1903, and his work there included an expedition for the exploration of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in 1904–5, a mineral survey of the Native States of Baluchistan during the following year, the investigation of the water supply of the North West Frontier Provinces, and reporting on the Swat river tunnel project from 1906 to 1907. He was subsequently engaged on reporting on monazite deposits of Travancore and on samarskite in the Nellore district of Madras, and in 1912 and 1913 was a member of the deputation to Persia in connection with the Indo-Persian railway survey and from 1913-14 acted as oil-fields adviser, Burma.
During the 1914-18 war he was commissioned in the Indian Army Reserve of Officers and served in France in 1915 and with the Bikanir Camel Corps in Egypt and the Libyan desert in 1916 and 1917. He was recalled lo India to take charge of operations for the provision of mica for munitions, and acted technical adviser to the Government mica mines at Mahisri and Masnodin from 1917 to 1919. He also reported on pitchblende occurrences of the Gaya district in 1917 and on mica mining in Nellore in 1919. Mr. Tipper was appointed Superintendent of Geological Survey of India in 1920, and held this position until his retirement in September, 1929.
He came to England in 1928 on leave during his last year of office, and was appointed minerals adviser to the High Commissioner of India, a post which he held until October, 1946. On the outbreak of war in September, 1939, his services were lent to the Ministry of Economic Warfare until July, 1940, when he went to Washington for the Ministry of Supply. From there he travelled to India in connection with supplies of mica, and immediately after America entered the war was appointed a member of the British War Materials Mission, of which he was minerals adviser until June, 1944. From then until December, 1945, he was minerals adviser to the Ministry of Production, and during that period went to Brazil for the Ministry of Supply. In December, 1915, he was placed in charge of the Directorate of Mica, from which he resigned in October, 1946, continuing, however, to act in an advisory capacity until his death.
Mr. Tipper was elected to Membership of the Institution in 1921.
Vol. 57, Trans IMM 1947-48, pp.479-80
