It’s about time we had another World War 2 item on this blog. This photograph includes Mr. J.H. ‘Lippy’ Lipman who ran a jewellery shop in High Street, Rhyl; he is the gent in the foreground on far right. The photo, which shows locals meeting Polish refugee children at Rhyl Railway Station, is from the collection of Peter Trehearn.
Lippy was known as ‘The Wire King’. In addition to his jewellery shop in town he had a kiosk on the prom opposite Queen Street where he would cleverly bend wire into names or pictures, and create bespoke jewellery at great speed before your very eyes.
--
SUN 14th AUG 2016 UPDATE: Sandra Nicholson of Bicester near Oxford has been in touch to say that J.H. (Jacob Hayman) Lipman was her great uncle, i.e. her maternal grandfather’s brother.
As a child in the 1950s Sandra knew him as "Uncle Jack" and she has sent a splendid photo of his kiosk on the prom in late 1940s.
In the picture is Sandra’s late mother Bella who was working for Mr. Lipman at the time. The family was from Riga in Latvia and they were Jewish, as were children in the Railway Station photo.
Bella was from the side of the family whose surname was Ostrov. She was born in Llandovery, Carmarthenshire, and grew up mainly in Birmingham.
While in Rhyl, Bella met her future husband. In January 1950 they married and she became Bella Burman. The couple moved to Liverpool.
Mr. Lipman The Wire King passed away in 1959 in St. Asaph.
Thanks for contributing this information to the blog, Sandra.
--
