Ernest Tipson (1883–1958) was an English Plymouth Brethren missionary and linguist who compiled dictionaries of Cantonese and Hokkien (Amoy dialect).
Born into a large Brethren family in Enfield (then part of the Edmonton Hundred of Middlesex), England, Tipson began his working life, at the age of 14, as an architect's clerk and typist, but was called to missionary service in the early 1900s.
By 1917, Tipson became seriously ill, and suffered a nervous breakdown, leaving immediately for Sydney, Australia, despite his wife being eight months pregnant.
[1][3] Nearing retirement, at the age of 58, Tipson was incarcerated in Changi Prison during the occupation of Singapore by the Japanese during much of World War II.
Tipson's survival, said his son, also Ernest, was probably due to his tremendous sense of humour and the good company and support of son-in-law David.
Tipson's linguistic prowess, and later his acknowledged status as a gifted Chinese scholar, was extraordinary in the light of his humble education at a Board School back in England.