Sydney Rippon, Anglican clergyman, was the son of Cuthbert Rippon and his wife Emily Senior, born Denton, widow of S.E.C. Duffey. Sydney matriculated through the University of the Cape of Good Hope in 1877. Later Reverend Rippon, of the (Anglican) Church of the Province of South Africa, was stationed at Sydney's Hope, Sidbury, some 40 km west-south-west of Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape. There he remained as pastor of St Peter's Anglican Church for 52 years. He was married in 1885 to Anna Maria Kidson, with whom he had a son.
For a number of years Rippon made regular observations for the Meteorological Commission of the Cape of Good Hope at a second order meteorological station the position of which was given as latitude 33° 24' S, longitude 26° 10' E. A summary of his observations was published annually in the Commission's Report from 1899 to at least 1908.
