Captain Lionel Ernest Queripel VC (13 July 1920 − 19 September 1944) was a British Army officer and an English recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Early life Lionel Queripel came from a well established and highly decorated military family; his father, Colonel L. H. Queripel, was appointed CMG and awarded the DSO, having served during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 and later in Mesopotamia, France and Russia during World War I. His grandfather (appointed CB) and great-grandfather were also soldiers. He was born in Winterborne Monkton, Dorset, England. He was educated at Marlborough College. World War II Queripel, intent on pursuing a military career, entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst in January 1939. On 22 October, just a few weeks after the outbreak of World War II, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Royal Sussex Regiment. He was posted to the regiment's 2nd Battalion, a Regular Army unit then commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Manley James, a Victoria Cross (VC) recipient of World War I. The battalion was serving in Northern Ireland on internal security duties before moving to England in December where it became part of the 133rd Infantry Brigade, itself one of three brigades forming Major General Edmund Osborne's 44th (Home Counties) Infantry Division. Together with the rest of his battalion, Queripel went to France in April 1940, only to return less than two months later, after the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), despite fighting bravely in the Battle of France, was forced to retreat to Dunkirk, from where they were evacuated to England. Almost two years of home defence, spent mainly in Kent, were to pass before Queripel, who on 22 April 1941 was promoted to lieutenant, and his battalion were to see further action. In May 1942 Queripel's battalion, along with the rest of the 44th Division, now under Major General Ivor Hughes, left England, destined for North Africa. On 27 July Queripel was promoted to the temporary rank of captain. After participating in the Battle of Alam el Halfa and the Second Battle of El Alamein (the latter where they sustained heavy casualties) the battalion was one of several to provide candidates for selection to form a new battalion of the Parachute Regiment. Originally, when the 2nd Battalion was scheduled