Reverend George Phipps
(1820-1901)
25 January 1861

Volume 2, page 164, sitting number 1945.

Born in India on 27 December 1820, George William Phipps was the son of Captain Pownoll Phipps of the East India Company, later Colonel Pownoll Phipps of ‘Oaklands,’ Clonmel, Tipperary. His mother was Sophia Matilda née Arnold. He was baptised at Barrackpore in Bengal on 13 February 1821.

Educated at Peterhouse College, Cambridge (BA 1843, MA 1847), he was ordained a deacon in 1844 and became a priest in 1848. He was successively the Curate of Wellingborough, Northamptonshire (1848-1851), the Curate of Cranford, also in Northamptonshire (1851-1853) and the Curate of Husbands Bosworth, Leicestershire (1853-1856). In 1856 he became the Rector of Husbands Bosworth, a living he held until 1898.

On 19 April 1854 at Southampton he married Agnes Bertha, daughter of John Witt of Elm Cottage, Lutterworth, Leicestershire.

The family appear on the 1861 living at the Rectory in Husbands Bosworth. The household included three daughters (aged 16, 13 and 11), a governess and three servants, all female.

Reverend Phipps appears on the 1891 census living at the Rectory in Husbands Bosworth, Leicestershire, with two unmarried daughters and his son Sidney Arnold Philpps, a journalist. The household included three servants, all female.

Rev. George William Phipps died on 2 August 1901 at Elm Cottage, Lutterworth, Leicestershire. He left an estate valued at £12,311.

An obituary and a detailed report of his funeral appeared in the Rugby Advertiser (17 August 1901): ‘Mr Phipps was curate-in-charge of Husbands Bosworth 1852-6, and in the latter year was appointed rector by the patron, Mr Geo. W. Lamb. Deceased was twice married. By his first wife he leaves two sons and five daughters. During his long incumbency of 42 years the church underwent considerable restoration; first of all in 1861, at a cost of £1250, the greater part of which was contributed by the late Rector himself. […] A kind and sympathetic friend to numbers in his parish, many a one has had practical experience of his numerous acts of kindness and sympathy; who have had their sorrows lightened and their wants relieved by his generous and ready hand. He bore his long illness without a murmur, patiently and resignedly, passing peacefully away on Friday evening the 2nd inst. at 10 pm.’