Although both his death certificate and the CWGC list his full name as Arthur William Zipple Dorrington, it was actually Arthur William Zipfel Dorrington. He was born in 1915, at Norwich, in Norfolk, the son of Charlotte Eliza Dorrington, who was unmarried at the time, but who, the following year, married the father, Arthur William Zipfel.

His father was a regular army soldier, having served as a Sergeant, No. 5214, with the 2nd and later 1st Battalions, of the Norfolk Regiment, and who had served in South Africa during the Boer War, gaining the Queen's South Africa and King's South Africa Medals. He continued to serve during World War One, gaining the 1914 Star with bar, British War Medal, Victory Medal, and, Meritorious Service Medal.

Arthur William Zipfel Dorrington's mother died in 1918, when he was 3 years old. His father re-married, Mildred Osborn, also of Norwich. From this marriage Arthur acquired one step-brother from his step-mother's previous relationship, and four half-siblings, born between 1921-1933.

It is not known what Arthur William Zipfel Dorrington's occupation was before he joined the Army. In early 1940 he married Gwyneth Lorraine Hill, at Isleworth, in Middlesex. She was a rubber tyre machinist living at 4 Beverley Hans Road in Isleworth.

Arthur William Zipfel Dorrington's service record is not yet in the public domain, but it is believed that he had joined the Regular Army prior to World War Two. By 1940 he was a Corporal, No. 5882983, in the Northamptonshire Regiment. By September, 1940, he was serving with the 50th (Holding) Battalion. This battalion had been raised on 12 June 1940, and was used to temporarily 'hold' men who were medically unfit, temporarily homeless, returning from abroad or awaiting orders.

It is possible that he had served with the 2nd Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment, which had been with the British Expeditionary Force in France, and had been evacuated back to England in June, 1940.

Corporal Arthur William Zipfel Dorrington was stationed at Euston Park, in Suffolk, just a few miles south of Thetford. On Sunday, 8 September, 1940, at Euston Park, he took his own life, in the stores tent at Euston Park, by shooting himself with a rifle, He was aged 25.

Arthur William Zipfel Dorrington was buried in Thetford Cemetery, in Norfolk. His name has not been traced on any war memorial.