In about 1892, Fripp and his parents left Mansfield for Belfast, where they spent the next six years. They then moved to Bristol. Fripp had a younger brother, Tom, and a sister, Molly. Paul Fripp was sent to Willaston School in Cheshire. He did not much enjoy his schooldays, as he always wanted to make things and the only free time he had was on Sunday afternoons. He was very practical and artistic from an early age. While still at school he bought some string and made a hammock.

Fripp commenced his art training at Bristol School of Art and continued at Leicester when his family moved there. They lived at The Parsonage, St. John's Road, in an area known as the Stoneygate. In 1909 Fripp won the Bennet Scholarship and a free studentship to the Royal College of Art in London, where he was taught in all the departments and learnt architecture, design, carpentry, jewellery making and metal-work, in addition to painting, drawing and sculpture. He returned to Leicester for two years to train for his painting Diploma. His 'Fete Champetre' came second in a national painting examination. He intended to spend another two years at the Royal College. However, war broke out and the Royal College agreed to postpone his scholarship. While at Leicester Art School he met Mabel Harvey (born 1892), a fellow-student, and they became engaged on 1 April 1912.

Fripp enlisted in the Army as a Private with the Leicestershire Regiment on the day after war was declared in August 1914. In 1915, he was promoted to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. Shortly afterwards he fought at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli, with the 53rd Welsh Division. He spent the rest of the war years serving in Egypt and Palestine and was mentioned in dispatches by General Allenby. While in the desert in Egypt he was twice wounded; once in the left arm, where a piece of shrapnel remained embedded for the rest of his life, and the second time in the head.

Fripp had a passionate love of cameras and always carried one wherever he went. Having heard that he was being sent overseas, he went out and bought a miniature camera, so small that it would fit into his tobacco pouch (as photography was not allowed in the Army!). He took hundreds of films which he would develop in his tent after dark and then send home to be printed and enlarged later. Fripp spent many months in the desert where water was strictly rationed; each man was only allowed a pint per day for washing and drinking, but somehow he managed to save enough to develop his films! He also found some time for sketching during his years in the Army. Fripp did not return to England until 1918, when he was granted leave to be married. The wedding took place on 12 February, at Knighton Church, Leicester. He and Mabel then spent three weeks together. He had postponed the wedding for a day so that he could develop his films with his future father-in-law, who was an honorary photographer at Leicester University and had a dark room there.

Fripp returned to Alexandria, where he was appointed director of an Army technical college, a job which he carried out enthusiastically. However, once the war ended, he was keen to get back to London to rejoin his wife and continue with his art studies. He landed in England shortly after Christmas 1918.

On 19 February 1919, Fripp resumed his studies at the Royal College of Art, he lived in Chelsea, initially in small 'bedsits' and later in an unfurnished flat at 80 Edith Grove, where Mabel joined him. The artist Alfred Kingsley Lawrence (born 1893) rented the flat below them. Even though the flat was small, it had a tiny sink inside a cramped cupboard which Fripp used as a darkroom, while his wife washed up in a bowl on a lid over the bath! Their first daughter, Marjorie, was born in February 1920, and Fripp later told Mabel that this was the happiest day of his life. In January 1921 he graduated as an Associate of the Royal College of Art.

Shortly after Fripp had graduated the Principal of the Cheltenham Ladies College, Miss Faithful, offered him the post of Director of Art, which he accepted. He proved to be an excellent teacher and the Art Department flourished under his guidance. In December 1925 the students and staff held a small exhibition at the Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum. In the catalogue Fripp stressed the importance of ideas in conjunction with fine workmanship, and Art as a universal means of expression, not merely for a chosen few but for everybody.

He also regarded 'work as the basis of life' and advocated laughter as being 'healthy, universal and natural'. During his first summer at the College the weather was excessively hot and he apparently caused quite a stir by wearing his white flannels to work. When they arrived in Cheltenham the Fripps lived in a first floor flat at Mersea House, Bath Road and later they moved to a newly built house at 10 Milton Road. The house had a garden in which Fripp soon built a workshop. He established a dark room at the Ladies College in order to continue with his photographic work. He joined the Cheltenham Camera Club and later became its President. He also exhibited regularly with the Cheltenham Group of Artists from 1921 to 1932. The Fripps' second daughter, Celia, was born in July 1923.

In 1931 the Fripps moved to Bideford in Devon, Paul having been appointed the Principal of the School of Art. They lived at 5 Bay View Terrace, Northam, where they had a superb view of the sea and, on a clear day, of the Welsh coast. Fripp quickly constructed a dark room and workshop so that he could continue with his own work in his free time. In 1934 he was urged to apply for the post of Principal of the new Art College which was being opened in a converted old hospital at Bath. He finally accepted the challenge and the family moved to 2 Dunsford Place, Bathwick Hill, where yet another dark room and workshop were subsequently installed! He also joined the local photographic society. He had already achieved a wide reputation for his photographic skills and had won several medals for what he called 'one of the finest of hobbies'. He had been elected a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society in 1931.

After three years in Bath, Fripp took up another appointment as Principal of Art in Carmarthen in Wales. The family moved to 7, The Esplanade, Carmarthen. There they had a magnificent view of the River Towy and up the valley to the Black Mountains and the Brecon Beacons. His mother-in-law once remarked, 'Paul always does find a nice house'. His enthusiasm for photography was as keen as ever and he soon had his darkroom and workshop functioning. Not content just to take photographs, he used to make his own cameras, several of which were patented.

During the Second World War Fripp served in the Home Guard, but had to relinquish his military duties as his work load at the School of Art was too great. He made some enlargements from his Gallipoli negatives and exhibited them in a local shop window. They attracted a huge crowd of people, some of whom recognized themselves or their comrades in various dug-outs.

Fripp's enthusiasm for his painting never waned, although his later pictures tended to be in oils rather than watercolour. Throughout his career he worked late into the night on his current projects. Sadly, his health began to suffer. He developed heart trouble and for the last three years of his life was mostly confined to his bed, which he hated. He used to get up surreptitiously and steal into his workshop whenever he thought Mabel would not notice him, and often, when he could not sleep at night, he would sit on the edge of his bed working on his Bath book. He complained, 'I've been fifty years amassing knowledge. Now I feel ready to begin to give it out, and I can't'. He had been looking forward to his retirement to do all the things he had never found time for while he was working, including possibly opening a small photographic business. He died at his home at Carmarthen, aged fifty-five, on 19 August 1945.

Although Fripp devoted most of his time and energy to teaching, he was a gifted landscape, still life and portrait painter and an outstanding draughtsman. A strictly disciplined and dedicated artist, he believed that 'talents were meant to be cultivated'. At the same time, he was unduly modest about his artistic ability, claiming that he was 'merely the channel through which the Creator expresses himself'. His work was his life and when asked about his hobbies he would immediately answer 'My work'. A room full of his paintings and photographs creates an impression, not only of technical skill and strength of design and craftsmanship, but also of precision, calmness and optimism.

Paul Fripp was a large man (over six feet tall), with huge hands and feet, as can be seen in his lively caricatures of himself. Someone shaking hands with him once described it as 'putting one's fist into a field'. He also had a spontaneous sense of humour and an infectious and loud laugh. He was enthusiastic about recent inventions and loved motorbikes and cars. He was always preoccupied by some new venture or idea. His mother once said that being married to a Fripp was like being tied to the tail of a comet.

The admiration aroused by Fripp's paintings is well illustrated by the following anecdote: A lady had seen a large watercolour by Paul at his home and had bought it. Several weeks later Paul met her again and asked her how the picture was looking. She said that unfortunately it looked all wrong in its new surroundings. Paul said, 'Well, send it back and I shall refund the money'. To which she replied in shocked tones: 'Oh no, Mr. Fripp, I can't do that. I'm having the entire room redecorated to suit the picture!'

Paul Fripp exhibited regularly in local art, craft and photographic exhibitions and at several London galleries, including the Royal Academy, the Royal Photographic Society and the New English Art Club. However, he rarely had any 'one-man' exhibitions. This small exhibition may give people the chance to enjoy and admire the work of a talented artist, who made a major contribution to Cheltenham cultural life in the 1920s.

Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museums wish to thank: