# Mr. Thipps — Whose Body? character guide

> Mr. Thipps in Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Thipps, little Thipps, Mr. Alfred Thipps, Alfred

**First appearance:** 0002-i

## Snapshot

A small, blameless Battersea architect who finds a corpse in his bath and is promptly treated by the coroner as though he had put it there himself.

## Who they are

Mr. Thipps is a timid, respectable man of modest means whose one piece of bad luck is discovering a stranger's body in his own bathroom at eight in the morning. At the inquest he is bullied, cautioned, and nearly incriminated by a coroner more interested in procedure than in truth, and his helpless dignity under cross-examination is both comic and painful. His ordeal matters because it exposes how easily the machinery of justice can grind an innocent man, and because his Manchester alibi is the first thread Wimsey must pull.

## In the story

### [Whose Body?](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/whose_body_se/chapters/whose-body)

The owner of the flat where the body is discovered.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/whose_body_se/chapters/i)

The distressed resident who found the body in his bath; he describes the shock and his interactions with Inspector Sugg.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/whose_body_se/chapters/iii)

Arrested by Sugg; his contradictory statements about his movements are discussed.

### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/whose_body_se/chapters/vi)

Gives evidence in a croaking voice, admits to being with an old schoolfellow on the night of the murder but refuses to name him.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/whose_body_se/characters/little_mr_thipps
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/whose_body_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/whose_body_se/characters