Born on 18 January 1918 he was educated at the University of Sydney, qualified in 1942 and was a resident at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. He served with the Australian Army Medical Corps against the Japanese in New Guinea, New Britain and Bougainville. He was appointed to the Repatriation Hospital at Concord, Sydney in November 1946. He took the degree of MS in 1949 and was for two years a tutor at the University, and then registrar, tutor, and clinical assistant at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. He came to England in 1953 and worked at the City General Hospital, Sheffield and at the Brompton Hospital under Sir Clement Price Thomas. He then went back to the Repatriation Hospital, and in 1957 was appointed consultant chest surgeon to Paramatta District Hospital and in 1958 to the Western Suburbs Hospital. Peipman was killed in a car accident on 3 October 1958. His wife, whom he had married in 1950, survived him with two sons and a daughter; a third son was born posthumously. Peipman was a devout Christian. He had few interests outside surgery, but had lately begun to breed roller canaries.