Born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland, to Richard and Etty Lipsett in June 1874, Lipsett was raised in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, and Bedford, England, following his father's death in 1887.
In 1911, Lipsett responded to the call from the Colonial Office for young staff officers to operate in colonial military academies, as military education had been standardised throughout the British Empire in 1909 [REF].