Life Story
Early Life
Lionel Ernest Queripel was born on 13 July 1920 in Winterborne
Monkton, Dorset, England, into a proud military family. His father,
Colonel L. H. Queripel CMG, DSO, had served with distinction, while
his grandfather and great-grandfather had also worn the King’s uniform
before him. Military service was thus deeply rooted in his upbringing.
He was educated at Marlborough College, where he
excelled as both academically and in sports, playing
rugby (opposite), boxing, and also joining the Ofcer
Training Corps. From an early age, Lionel was marked
out as a natural leader. In January 1939, at just 18 years
old, he entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst,
graduating into a world already at war.
Early Military Career
Commissioned into the Royal Sussex Regiment in
October 1939, Lionel was rst posted to Northern Ireland before
deployment to France. He fought in the Battle of France in 1940,
surviving the desperate ghting and eventual evacuation at Dunkirk.
He was then sent to North Africa, where he distinguished himself at
both the Battle of Alam el Halfa and the Second Battle of El Alamein,
rising to the rank of Captain by July 1942.
In December 1942, his battalion was converted into a parachute
unit, and Lionel was keen to volunteer for the newly formed 10th
Battalion, Parachute Regiment. He completed his parachute training
in the Middle East and deployed with his battalion to Italy during
Operation Slapstick in September 1943. Due to a shortage of
transport aircraft, the airborne troops were transported by sea on