Private Adrian Cracroft Thrupp was born in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England, on August 3, 1897. His family immigrated to Canada prior to World War I and settled in Kamloops, British Columbia.

Thrupp enlisted with the 11th Canadian Mounted Rifles in Vernon, B.C., on August 20, 1915. Shipping for England on board the SS Lapland in July 1916, he proceeded that October to France where he served with the 29th Battalion.

On April 11, 1917, at Vimy Ridge, Thrupp suffered a serious head wound. After many months of hospitalization in England, he returned to Canada and was medically discharge on March 13, 1918.

The materials in the Thrupp Collection were donated as part of the Sydney Winterbottom Collection. Thrupp and Winterbottom had been friends in Kamloops before the war. Both having enlisted in 1915, they served together in the 11th C.M.R. and 29th Bn. until finally separated when Adrian was wounded in action at Vimy in 1917. Winterbottom was killed later that fall at the Battle of Passchendaele.

In the letter section below is correspondence Thrupp wrote to his father describing his voyage to England on the SS Lapland, as well as a reference list of links to the numerous letters in the Winterbottom Collection in which Winterbottom writes about Thrupp.

External links:
Pte. Thrupp’s service record (Serv/Reg# 116579) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through Library and Archives Canada.