Early Life
Howard Kippenberger was born on 28 January 1897 in Ladbrooks, in the Canterbury Region of New Zealand. His unusual surname came from his paternal great-grandparents, who emigrated to New Zealand from Germany in 1862. He attended local schools in Ladbrooks and then Prebbleton (his father was a teacher at one of them) for his early education until his father became a farmer and moved the family to Oxford. Kippenberger continued his schooling at Christchurch Boys' High School as a boarder. Intellectually advanced for his age, he was not academically challenged at school and misbehaved in class. This, together with a low attendance rate, led to the school authorities asking him to leave high school. Returning home to Oxford, he worked on the family farm.
Always interested in military history, Kippenberger joined the local unit of the New Zealand Cadet Corps and found that he enjoyed soldiering. His father did not approve of his interest but regardless, Kippenberger enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) in late 1915 at the age of 18. Because only men between the ages of 19 and 45 were required to register for service, he falsified his age to ensure that he would be eligible for duty overseas.
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