Memorial to Frederick William Gibbs, High Wycombe Cemetery
Frederick William Gibbs 1888 - 1917
My name is Frederick William Gibbs and I was born in 1888 in High Wycombe. My father William was a publican and chairmaker which was a fairly common combination in High Wycombe at that time as he was able to store and sell chairs from his yard. He had been the publican of the Carrington Arms but later became the publican of the Antelope Inn in Church Square, which is the home I left to join the army. My mother Emma Gibbs, nee Lamden, helped my father in the pub. My sister Lily was two years older than me and my little brother Arthur was eight years younger. I found work with Mr Ellis of West End Road but my real love was football. I played for Wooburn Park, Flackwell Heath, Wycombe Ramblers and Wycombe Trinity where I made quite a name for myself. My sister Lily trained as a dressmaker and married Arthur Hill in 1910 and so had left the family home well before the start of the Great War.
In September 1914 I joined the 2/1st Bucks Battalion of the Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry and was originally Private 2172 but later became Private 265569. My little brother Arthur also joined the colours but was invalided home. In July 1916 I received a gunshot wound to my thigh and buttock but after I recovered I returned to the Front. My Battalion saw some of the severest engagements of the war and I was killed in action on the 22nd August 1917. I was 29.
By a remarkable coincidence another Frederick Gibbs (actually Frederick Charles Gibbs from Aylesbury) served with the same battalion as me and was also killed on the very same day, aged 28. I wonder how many other soldiers sharing the same name and serving in the same battalion, died on exactly the same day? Because of this my service history isn't clear. Both of us are remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial at Zonnebeke, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium and I am also remembered here, in Wycombe Cemetery, on my sister Lily's grave. Sadly she died three days after me but because I died abroad my parents only heard of my death a number of days after my sister's. As you can imagine, it was a very unhappy time for my poor parents.
Researched by Margaret Anderton, Flackwell Local Area History Group and Sally Scagell, Lost the Plot.
