Educator, labour leader.
Born at Twickenham, England, he came to Manitoba in 1905 as a Baptist preacher. He drifted from preaching into carpentry then into industrial education as a school teacher (later Vice Principal) at Lord Roberts School, where he worked for over 40 years (1921-?), and as Principal of the Brooklands School District (1955-1956).
Tipping was a moderate socialist and a member of the Social Democratic Party. He was elected President of the Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council later in 1917, and was deposed a year later because as a member of the Mather Industrial Commission he had signed a report more critical of labour than of management. He objected especially to the Metal Trades Union going on strike while its dispute was before the Commission, which intended to settle it. The vote calling for his suspension passed the council on 5 September 1918 by a vote of 49 to 10, and his resignation was accepted two weeks later. The movement to depose him was led by R. B. Russell, and was indicative of a growing split between moderates and radicals on the Trades and Labor Council. He was a Labour candidate in the 1920 provincial general election. He later helped to found the Manitoba CCF and was a candidate for the party in the 1945 and 1949 federal elections.
He served on the Child Welfare Board, Town Planning Commission, and Parks Board. He was instrumental in establishing the Lord Roberts Community Club and the Fort Rouge Public Library. He received the Manitoba Centennial Medal of Honour in 1970, and a senior citizens’ block on Osborne Street was named after him in 1974. A frequent source for later interviews with historians about the Winnipeg General Strike, many of his contemporaries regarded him as discredited and outside the mainstream of events in that period.
On 23 June 1914, he married Dora Segrid Eldon (1890-1964) at Winnipeg. They had two children: Jack Tipping and Molly Tipping.
He died at Winnipeg on 9 August 1973.
Marriage registration, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Obituary [Dora S. Tipping], Winnipeg Free Press, 6 August 1964, page 28.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 10 August 1973, page 14.
Times of Trouble: Labour Quiescence in Winnipeg 1920-1929 by David Edward Hall, MA thesis, University of Manitoba, 1983, page 13.
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.
We thank Gail Singleton for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 12 April 2018
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