LOUGHEED, Gibson
| Service Number: | 2349 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 41st Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Bear Creek, Nanango, Queensland, Australia, date not yet discovered |
| Home Town: | Yarraman, Toowoomba, Queensland |
| Schooling: | Nanango State School, Queensland, Australia |
| Occupation: | Farmer, Labourer |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 29 September 1918, age not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Unicorn Cemetery, Vendhuile Plot III, Row C, Grave 12, Unicorn Cemetery, Vendhuile, Picardie, France |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Blackbutt War Memorial, Brisbane 41st Battalion Roll of Honour, Nanango War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 21 Oct 1916: | Involvement Private, 2349, 41st Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '18' embarkation_place: Brisbane embarkation_ship: HMAT Boonah embarkation_ship_number: A48 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 21 Oct 1916: | Embarked Private, 2349, 41st Infantry Battalion, HMAT Boonah, Brisbane | |
| 9 Nov 1916: | Involvement Private, 2349, 43rd Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '18' embarkation_place: Fremantle embarkation_ship: HMAT Argyllshire embarkation_ship_number: A8 public_note: '' | |
| 9 Nov 1916: | Embarked Private, 2349, 43rd Infantry Battalion, HMAT Argyllshire, Fremantle | |
| 29 Sep 1918: | Wounded AIF WW1, Private, 2349, 41st Infantry Battalion, Breaching the Hindenburg Line - Cambrai / St Quentin Canal, Killed in action |
Help us honour Gibson Lougheed's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Daryl Jones
Son of William and Catherine LOUGHEED. Native of Bear.
Biography contributed by Ian Lang
#2349 LOUGHEED Gibson 41st Battalion
Gibson Lougheed was born at Nanango to William and Catherine Lougheed of Yarraman Creek. He probably attended school in the district before working on the family farm which may have been a dairy farm. Gibson took the train from Yarraman to Brisbane to enlist on 26th April 1916. He informed the recruiting officer that he was a 30 year old farmer from Yarraman Creek. Gibson named his eldest brother, William of Yarraman Creek, as his next of kin.
Gibson spent some time in the 11th depot Battalion at Enoggera. His younger brother, Edward, had enlisted in Cloncurry and had made his way to Enoggera where the brothers met up. Gibson was assigned to the 4threinforcements of the 41st Battalion; Edward to the 5th reinforcements of the same battalion. The brother’s paths would cross several times in the next two and a half years.
Gibson and the 4th draft of reinforcements boarded the Boonah in Brisbane on 21st October 1916 and headed to Melbourne and then Fremantle. Brother Ed would depart Brisbane a month later. When the Boonah docked in Fremantle in early November, Gibson failed to return to the ship before sailing. He was listed as Absent Without Leave and apprehended by the authorities. Such absconding was fairly common and the authorities had a special form which could be completed with the soldier’s details and forwarded to base records in Melbourne to avoid the soldier being declared a deserter. Gibson was re-attested at Blackboy Hill and placed in the 5th draft of the 43rd Battalion with the same regimental number. On this occasion, Gibson stated he was a labourer from Blackbutt. Gibson joined the Western Australian reinforcements on the “Argyllshire” when she departed Fremantle on 9th November.
The Argyllshire arrived in Devonport on 10th January 1917 and the reinforcements took a train to the 11thBrigade Training Depot at Larkhill near Stonehenge. Gibson’s brother Ed would join him at Larkhill in April. Gibson was reassigned back to his original battalion, the 41st and crossed over to France in July 1917 where he was taken on by the 41st at St Marie Capel. Brother Ed was already there.
On 29th September, Gibson was admitted to the 54th General Hospital at Etaples on the French Coast suffering from influenza. The medical authorities evacuated Gibson to the Suffolk War Hospital in England where he remained until discharged on 12th December 1917. As was usual practice, Gibson was granted a two week furlough on discharge from hospital before reporting to the infantry depot at Sutton Veny on 27thDecember.
Gibson was soon back in hospital at Bulford with a case of gonorrhoea which he had no doubt contracted while on leave. Gibson spent 80 days in the dermatological ward at Bulford during which time his pay was stopped. VD was a scourge that hit the AIF particularly hard and the authorities considered it a self-inflicted malady and as such a sufferer would be treated, but had all leave and pay stopped.
Gibson finally marched in to the 41st Battalion on 27th May 1918. His brother, Edward, was not there to greet him as he was hospital at Rouelles with a case of syphilis, contracted while on leave in England. The brothers were finally reunited late June 1918 on the Somme.
The battle of Hamel was the first offensive operation undertaken by British forces since the ill-fated Passchendaele campaign eight months earlier. It was a small action which had been planned by the Australian Corps Commander John Monash; incorporating coordinated use of artillery, tanks, aircraft and smoke screens. The plan called for the objective, the “Wolfsberg” redoubt overlooking the village of Hamel to be reached in 90 minutes. It in fact took 93. The 41st Battalion was in the reserve line at Hamel and were not required.
Having proved the value of his methods and meticulous planning, Monash embarked on an even greater scheme which would involve all five divisions of the AIF, three Canadian Divisions, two British divisions and cavalry. The battle which became known as the Battle of Amiens commenced on the 8th August 1918. The plan was an almost carbon copy of the one used at Hamel the previous month. The 41st Battalion and the associated battalions of the 11th Brigade had the task of advancing from the start line near Villers Bretonneux to Lamont Warfusee, where the entire division was leapfrogged by the 5th Division AIF. Amiens was a great triumph for Monash and his AIF, pushing forward an incredible 10 kilometres. It was the battle which broke open the static warfare of the trenches and put the campaign into open country.
Haig pressured Monash to use the AIF to keep the pressure on the shocked German army and smaller engagements continued to move the line eastwards; but not all of these actions enjoyed the success of Amiens. In an action on 24th August near Lihons, Gibson received a shrapnel wound to his right hand. He was evacuated as walking wounded via the 47th casualty clearing station to the 6th Australian General Hospital at Rouelles. Gibson returned to his battalion on 5th September to learn that in his absence, his brother had been wounded at Roisel and was in hospital at Rouen. Ed Lougheed died four days later.
In an attack against the Hindenburg Line outposts at Bony on 29th September, Gibson was killed outright by a burst of machine gun fire. His death was reported by his platoon commander, Lieutenant Woods. Gibson’s body was recovered from the battlefield and buried near Bony in the Unicorn Cemetery at Vendhuile. He is buried beside Sergeant Rickwood and Private Robert Wilson, 41st Battalion men who also fell that day.
Bony would prove to be the last engagement fought by the 41st Battalion. The weary battered troops were withdrawn from the battlefield and were still in their comfortable billets near Amiens when they were informed by French civilians that the armistice had taken effect.
When Gibson’s affairs were settled, the whole of his estate was delivered to Fred Nunn, a dairyman from Yarraman Creek. His medals went to his eldest brother William, also of Yarraman Creek.