He attended boarding school and, despite taking the University of Cambridge entrance examination, became an apprentice to an engineer.
He worked for the Metropolitan Railways in London during World War I and became politically radicalised by the 1917 Russian Revolution.
[1] In 1931 Tripp was a candidate for the 1931 by-election for the House of Representatives seat of Parkes, making him the first endorsed Communist to stand for federal parliament.
At the federal election later that year he contested Darling and in 1932 ran for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of King.
[1] Tripp moved to Melbourne in 1938 and on 30 July married Ruby May Bullock at Carlton.