Geoffrey Tripp: Tea-taster in India who followed jungle paths with a native tracker, rifle at the ready

GEOFFREY Tripp, who has died aged 93, was a tea-taster in India, served with distinction in the RAF during the Second World War, and afterwards became a bursar, first at Rossall then at Bryanston.

Geoffrey Howard Tripp was born on April 9 1905 into an ecclesiastical family. His father, Henry Tripp, became the Rector of Ditcheat, near Shepton Mallet in Somerset, where his mother's family, the Leirs, had lived for more than 300 years.

Geoffrey Tripp was educated at Lancing, where he enjoyed shooting and swimming. He also excelled academically, especially in Latin and Greek, and always regretted that lack of funds made it impossible for him to go on to university. He proudly recalled having once beaten his contemporary Evelyn Waugh in an essay-writing competition.

On leaving Lancing, Tripp was sent out to Ceylon to learn tea-planting from an uncle. Later, he would be a tea-taster with Brooke Bond in India. Tripp always considered himself fortunate to have known the last flourish of the British Raj, and he spent much of his spare time walking the jungle paths with his rifle and a native tracker.

On one occasion he came across a tigress who instantly charged to protect her two cubs. He barely had time to raise his rifle and shoot - and though he killed the tigress, her momentum knocked him over. Another time, when the tea planters were organising a party to shoot a rogue elephant, Tripp went out and despatched the beast before the others could even get started. In 1937 Tripp returned to England, and became secretary to the Royal Horticultural Society. On the outbreak of the Second World War he joined the RAF. Though disappointed to find that he was too old to fly, he contributed much at Lasham airfield in Hampshire, and attained the rank of Squadron Leader. He was appointed OBE.

Afterwards he beat several hundred applicants to land the job of bursar at Rossall. Four years later, in 1950, he moved to Bryanston, closer to his ancestral haunts. Later he was bursar at Ridgeway School, near Lymington, in Hampshire.

In retirement he took up clay pigeon shooting, winning the national championship for veterans at the age of 75. Failing eyesight curtailed this sport, though cataract operations eventually restored his vision. Up to this May he kept fit by swimming.

He married, in 1939, Lettice Roberts; they had a son and a daughter.