Vivian David Lipman (1921-90) was educated at St Paul's School, London, and Magdalen and Nuffield Colleges, Oxford. He obtained a first class degree in 1941, followed by a DPhil in 1947, on `Problems of areas in English local government'. He served in the Royal Signals and Intelligence Corps, 1942-5. In 1947 Lipman entered the Ministry of Health and later served in the Ministries of Local Government and Planning, Housing and Local Government, and the Department of the Environment. In 1955, he was appointed Private Secretary to the Minister of Housing and Local Government. He was seconded to the Local Government Commission, 1958-63, was head of the London Planning Division, 1963-7, the Historic Buildings Division, 1968-72, and Under Secretary and Director of Ancient Monuments and Historic Buildings, 1972-8. Lipman was President of the Jewish Historical Society of England, 1965-7; a member of the Research Board of the Institute of Jewish Affairs; Vice Chairman of the Research Committee of the Board of Deputies of British Jews; Vice President of the Ancient Monuments Society; a member of the Council of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings; a member of the Council of Management of the Architectural Heritage Fund; and in 1979 he was appointed a member of the Redundant Churches Fund. Lipman not only wrote extensively on the history of Anglo-Jewry, but was also involved in promoting research. He was Honorary Research Fellow in Jewish History, Department of Jewish Studies, University College, London. His publications include SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE JEWS IN ENGLAND (London, 1954), A HISTORY OF THE JEWS IN BRITAIN SINCE 1858 (Leicester, 1989), and he edited, with A.M. Haberman, THE JEWS OF MEDIEVAL NORWICH (London, 1967).
From the guide to the Papers of V.D. Lipman, 1871-1879, 1887-1990, (University of Southampton Libraries Special Collections)
