Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Charles Ernest William Gibbs (1887-1939), a painter and Japanner, enlisted with the Australian Military Forces AIF on 28 June 1915 at Keswick Barracks, Adelaide South Australia, No 2371, with the rank of Private. Next of kin was noted as Charles Henry Gibbs, his father now living at 110 Wright Street Adelaide, c/o Mrs Mason. He later joined the 10th Infantry Battalion embarking on 21 Sep 1915 for active duty abroad on board the HMAT Star of England.
Next we find him in Mudros a small Greek port on the Mediterranean island of Lemnos. It gained wartime significance with the determination of the Allies - chiefly the British and largely through the enthusiasm of Winston Churchill- in the early part of 1915 to attempt to seize control of the Dardanelles Straits, some 50km away. He was admitted sick to the Mudros Hospital on 3 December 1915 and subsequently was charged with two offences, namely breaking camp at Tel-el-Kebir Egypt without leave for about a week and neglect of duty while in the field, for which he received disciplinary action of 20 days detention.
He later rejoined his Unit the 9th/10 Battalion on 4 March 1916 on the front line at the Suez Canal defence where he proceeded from Alexandria to Marseilles France on the 3rd April to join with the British Expeditionary Forces. He was wounded in action in France on 9 April 1917 with gun shot wounds to his chest (thorax) and was admitted to the 3rd Australian Casualty Clearing Station located in Grevillers near Bapaume which had fallen to our Second Australian Division about three weeks before.
On 26 April 1917 he was transported from Boulogne France and admitted to the 1st London Hospital England where he remained until 27 August 1917, when he was discharged on furlough to report at Command Depot, Weymouth Dorset England on 10 September 1917.
Weymouth was the depot for the Anzacs Gallipoli casualties sent to UK hospitals for treatment and then discharged as convalescent. The depot opened in May 1915 and was the joint Australian and New Zealand depot until the NZ depot opened at Hornchurch in Essex in April 1916. Weymouth then became AIF Command Depot No.2 which accommodated those men not expected to be fit for duty within six months, therefore, most of the Diggers repatriated as a result of wounds or sickness passed through Weymouth. During the years 1915-1919 over 120,000 Australian and New Zealand troops passed through Weymouth.
On 25 September CEW Gibbs ‘marched out’ to Parkhouse Convalescent Training Depot just south of Tidworth on the Salisbury Plain England where he later returned via Port Lyttleton New Zealand to Australia on the 19th October 1917 disembarking at Adelaide on 11 December 1917. He was discharged from the AIF in Adelaide and pronounced medically unfit for duty on 25 March 1918.
The trauma and effects of the war had a huge impact on his later life after being repatriated to Adelaide. He spent a few occasions in the Adelaide Gaol for being Drunk and Disorderly in 1921-22. He spent the rest of his life having been committed to the Parkside Mental Institution Adelaide where he suffered from a chronic mental disorder and was unable to recover from such. He died on the 2nd March 1939.