The Kinipple family memorial

Image: © Lairich Rig Taken: 18 Jun 2012

This memorial is located near the south-eastern corner of the cemetery (it is point of interest № 7 on the Red Walk in the "Greenock Cemetery Walks" booklet – see the end-note). Prominent amongst this family, and commemorated in the inscriptions on this monument, is Walter Robert Kinipple (1832-1901), civil engineer. He was born at Limehouse, and died at Brighton, but was involved in important work carried out locally; for example, the 700-foot-long Sugar Warehouse (Image) at Greenock's James Watt Dock was built, in 1882-86, to Kinipple's design. His obituary appeared in "Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers", Volume 150, issue 1902, pages 436–441. It is noted there that "the adoption of his design for the new harbour works at Greenock was the origin of his long connection with the Harbour Board there, from 1868 till 1887, during which period he acted as Chief and Consulting Engineer for the Greenock Harbour Trustees, constructed the new harbour works at the east end of the town and remodelled the old works". He also designed a kind of travelling caisson with a lowering deck; this served as both as dock gates and as an opening bridge for road or rail traffic across a dock or harbour entrance. This design was employed at Greenock and elsewhere [Kinipple's various engineering projects at Greenock Harbour are described in detail in Volume 130, issue 1897, pages 276-297 of the journal that was cited above]. [The obituary claims that Kinipple's family were ultimately of Danish origin, which may or may not be the case. However, its claim that one of his engineering forebears is commemorated by the name of a harbour bridge at Copenhagen (presumably at the site of what is now called the Knippelsbro) is probably a misconception.]

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