Sir Herbert Alker Tripp

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(23 August 1883 – 12 December 1954), usually known as Alker Tripp or H. Alker Tripp, was a senior English police official who served as an Assistant Commissioner of the

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

from 1932 to 1947.

Early life and career

Tripp was born in London, the son of George Henry Tripp, a civil servant who later became Receiver for the

Metropolitan Police District The Metropolitan Police District (MPD) is the police area which is policed by the Metropolitan Police Service in London. It currently consists of the Greater London region, excluding the City of London. The Metropolitan Police District was create ...

. Tripp's ambition was to become an artist, but family disapproval led to him joining the civil staff at

Scotland Yard Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...

as a clerk in the Commissioner's Office on 22 December 1902. He held a number of posts before being appointed chairman of the Police Recruiting Board in 1920. In this post he conceived of the idea of a police college, which was later established by

Lord Trenchard Marshal of the Royal Air Force Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard, (3 February 1873 – 10 February 1956) was a British officer who was instrumental in establishing the Royal Air Force. He has been described as the "Father of the ...

. By 1928, Tripp was assistant secretary in the

Metropolitan Police Office The Metropolitan Police Office (MPO) was the department of the British Home Office which administered the Metropolitan Police of London, the only British territorial police force to be administered by central government A central government ...

Assistant Commissioner

On 15 January 1932, Tripp was appointed Assistant Commissioner "B", in charge of traffic. He was the first member of Scotland Yard's civilian staff to be appointed to this rank (at this time the Assistant Commissioners were not police officers, although they wore police uniform on formal occasions). He devoted the next fifteen years to the study of London's traffic problems, and also traffic problems of other cities throughout Europe and North America, becoming a recognised authority on the

traffic control Traffic management is a key branch within logistics. It concerns the planning control and purchasing of transport services needed to physically move vehicles (for example aircraft, road vehicles, rolling stock and watercraft) and freight. Traffic ...

. In 1933, he was appointed to the London and Home Counties Traffic Advisory Board. In 1938 he published ''Road Traffic and Its Control'', which remained the only full-length study of the subject until after his death. The outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

brought its own problems for traffic, such as road safety during the blackout, the clearance of roads after bombing raids during

the Blitz The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'. The Germa ...

, and the necessity of giving priority to military and other essential traffic. In September 1942, Tripp published a second book, ''Town Planning and Road Traffic'', which looked ahead to postwar reconstruction. In this book he pioneered the idea of

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...

s in Britain. In 1942, the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

invited him to become a member of its Planning Committee established to set up a scheme for London's architectural reconstruction after the war. Tripp retired from the Metropolitan Police and the London and Home Counties Traffic Advisory Committee on 1 May 1947, but remained a member of the Royal Academy Planning Committee until 1949. He was also a member of the

Ministry of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government age ...

Committee on Road Safety from 1943 until 1947. He supported the registration of

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. Bic ...

s, a policy which was not eventually endorsed by the committee. Tripp was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(CBE) in the

1935 New Year Honours The 1935 New Year Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the United Kingdom and British Empire. They were announced on the 28 of December, 1934. The recipients o ...

and was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

in the

1945 New Year Honours The 1945 New Year Honours were appointments by many of the Commonwealth realms of King George VI to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were announced on 1 January 1945 for the British ...

for his services during the war.

Personal life

Tripp never lost his interest in art, and many of his paintings were shown in the Royal Academy. More than twenty of his works were turned into

poster A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both typography, textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or w ...

s. He was also an enthusiastic

yacht A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...

sman, both cruising and racing. He had a large number of articles published in the yachting press in both Britain and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, and also wrote four books on the subject: * 1924:''Shoalwater and Fairway'' * 1926:''Suffolk Sea Borders'' * 1928:''Solent and the Southern Waters'' * 1950: ''Under the Cabin Lamp''. In 1910 he married Abigail Powell, a

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

er. She died on 26 February 1951.Obituary, ''The Times'', 27 February 1951 They had a son and a daughter.

Footnotes

References

*Obituary, ''The Times'', 13 December 1954

External links

*
Photographic portraits of Tripp in the National Portrait Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tripp, Alker 1883 births 1954 deaths Assistant Commissioners of Police of the Metropolis Knights Bachelor Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Civil servants from London English male sailors (sport) 20th-century English painters English male painters Road transport in England British urban planners Civil servants in the Home Office 20th-century English male artists