In many of his first-class matches, he opened the batting with his identical twin brother, Sydney Rippon.
The Rippon family hailed from London but had relocated to Radstock in Somerset, and the twins were sent to school at King's College, Taunton, where they made a lot of runs and caused confusion by their close resemblance to each other.
He played regularly for Somerset in the 1914 season and was joined in his third match by his brother, with whom he opened the innings.
[4] Following Britain's entry into the First World War on 4 August 1914, Rippon was commissioned into the horse transport section of the Army Service Corps as a second lieutenant.
On 10 October 1918 he managed to obtain a new commission as a second lieutenant in the Administrative Branch of the fledgling Royal Air Force and was based in Edmonton, London.