Herbert James Tipson was born in Coventry on 10 October 1879, the son of Tom William Tipson, a Cox Street watchmaker. He was baptised at St Michael's Church on 7 December. By 1901 he was living with his widowed mother in Cope Street Coventry, and was an assistant schoolmaster. On 1 June 1910 he took over as the head teacher at Ashover School in Derbyshire. A musical man, he played violin and sang in choirs as is evident from local newspaper articles.
Herbert and
Mary Jane Stuart were married on 26 December 1903 in Kenilworth - she lived in Spring Gardens. Born in 1881, she was the daughter of Robert Stuart, a Scot who had come to England as a gardener, working first in Coventry and then becoming head gardener at Stoneleigh Abbey. When her husband became head teacher at Ashover, she was a part-time cookery teacher, though they had three children, one of whom, Isabel, sadly died before the age of two.
At some point the couple returned to live in Coventry. In retirement they enjoyed travel to America to visit their son in Pittsburgh. As the inscription on their gravestone reads, when Mary Jane died on 20 May 1957 they had been married for over 53 years. Herbert died ten years later, on 24 November 1967, aged 88.