Gilbert Atkins





Desborough Road, High Wycombe (picture from SWOP website)

Gilbert Atkins grave in High Wycombe Cemetery





Gilbert Atkins 1898 - 1915

My name is Gilbert Atkins and I was born in 1898 in High Wycombe. My parents were Alfred & Louise nee Saunders. In 1901 I was living with my parents at 242, Desborough Road and my father was a brewer’s labourer. My siblings were all older than me. There was: Ellen aged 15yrs, Lilly aged 13yrs, Alfred aged 12yrs, Bertha aged 10yrs, George aged 8yrs and me – I was three years old. Our widowed grandmother, Louise Saunders, was also living with us. So it was quite a full house.

Ten years later our family address was just a few doors along at 250, Desborough Road. My mother had died in 1907 and my father was now trying to manage as best he could with the help of my older sister Lilly who was now looking after us four younger ones who still lived at home, myself, Alfred, Bertha & George. Fortunately they had all found work in the furniture factories.

When war broke out I was too young to join up. I was still only 17yrs old when I finally enlisted at High Wycombe. You usually had to be 18yrs old to enlist unless, like some lads, you lied about your age. However, if you were a member of the Boy’s Brigade in High Wycombe then that was slightly different. The 16th Battalion of the King’s Own Rifle Corps, known as the Church Lad’s Brigade, was formed in nearby Denham in 1914 from members of the Brigade. The CWGC record my Battalion as the 19th and I served in “ B” Company.

I had been in the King’s Own Rifle Corps for ten weeks and was stationed at Andover when I came home on leave to see my brother George who was also on leave (he was in the 1st Battalion Bucks Territorials) when I became ill with appendicitis which quickly developed into peritonitis. I was admitted to the V.A.D hospital where an operation was performed but I unfortunately died. My brother had only returned to the Front three days earlier.

Although I had only been in military service for a short time I was given a full military funeral. The Royal Field Artillery belonging to No 4 Training School at Wycombe supplied the gun carriage and a team of horses, while the 3rd Battalion Bucks Territorials sent a large number of men including a band and bugler plus firing party.

Three volleys were fired over my grave and the Last Post was sounded. My brother Alfred arrived from the Kings Royal Rifle Corps in Andover just a few minutes after I was laid to rest.

Hundreds of people lined the streets and my family and friends sent floral tributes.

The inscription on his grave reads: “SOMETIME WE’LL UNDERSTAND”



Researched by Ruth Bowler, Flackwell Local Area History Group

Back to map