George Castle Pipkin
Mayor of Oxford 1934/5
George Castle Pipkin (1859–1950) was born at Westbury in Buckinghamshire. He was the sixth child of Thomas Pipkin, an agricultural labourer born in Westbury, and Caroline, who had been born in Finmere in Oxfordshire.
Soon after the birth of George the family moved to Horspath, and they can be found there in the 1861 census. His eldest brother John was a plow boy of 14, and his other siblings wereMary Ann, Harriet, Bessy, and Pleasant.
His family must have moved again to Cowley when he was young, as Pipkin always claimed that he began work at the age of 8 driving a plough there, and that clods of earth were thrown at him for not ploughing a straight furrow. The 1871 census shows him as a boy of 11 living with his family at Cowley. Two years later at the age of 13, he was apprenticed to a bricklayer.
By 1880 he had married Annie Taylor, daughter of a Cowley farm labourer Thomas Taylor. At the time of the 1881 census Pipkin, still only 22, is described as a stonemason. He was living in Church Street, Cowley (now Beauchamp Lane) with his wife and his ten-month-old daughter Adelaide. His wife’s father and her younger siblings lived with them, but Pipkin was already deemed to be head of the household. A year later when he was 23 he started the firm that was to develop into G.C. Pipkin & Sons, builders.
By 1891 Pipkin and his wife had moved into Howard Street and had a five-year-old son, Alfred. Ten years later in 1901 their house is numbered 50 Howard Street, young Arthur at 15 is already a bricklayer, and they have three more children: Jesse (14), Frank (2), and a 14-day-old baby girl. Pipkin’s widowed mother Caroline has also come to live with them.
Pipkin was a member of the East Oxford Liberal Club from its foundation, and was its President for a period. He was first elected as councillor for the East Ward in November 1922, when he was 62 years old. He continued as a councillor until he was made an Alderman in 1937. He was Chairman for seven years of the Waterworks Committee, and for five years of the Estates Committee and Vice-Chairman of the Highways Committee. He was elected Mayor in 1934, when he was 75 years old .
Pipkin was a member of the Oxford and District Co-operative Society for over 60 years, the East Oxford Bowls Club, the East Oxford Horticultural Show, and the Court Loyal Oxonian (2991) Ancient Order of Foresters.
In 1948 Pipkin resigned from being an Alderman. He died at the age of 90 on 2 May 1950, and was buried three days later in Rose Hill Cemetery. His was survived by three sons and four daughters.
See also:
- Oxford Times, 5 May 1950, p. 7e (obituary)
- 1861 Census: Oxford (Horspath & Shotover), 889/106
- 1871 Census: Oxford (Cowley & Iffley), 1434/125
- 1881 Census: Oxford (Cowley), 1497/31
- 1891 Census: Oxford (Cowley 3), 1164/11
- 1901 Census: Oxford (Cowley St John), 1379/8