Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Edward Gibbs was the eldest of three sons; Edward, Robert and Oliver, born to Thomas and Naomi Gibbs. The family was originally from Maryborough but perhaps with the opportunities presented by the opening of the rail line to Gayndah in the early part of the 1900s; took up farming at Muan Siding just outside Degilbo. The three boys attended school at Degilbo before working on the family farm, “Hopewell.”
 
It is possible that all three boys decided to enlist together in September 1915. Robert and Oliver were accepted but Edward was rejected due to bad teeth, a not uncommon condition in rural communities. He would appear to have had his teeth attended to (extraction of all teeth and the fitting of full denture plates was a common way of dealing with ongoing dental issues at the time) and presented himself for enlistment at the Adelaide Street recruiting depot in Brisbane on 21st February 1916. He was 27 years old and single.
 
Edward gave his address as “Hopewell” Muan Siding and named his father of the same address as his next of kin. Edward reported to Bell’s Paddock at Enoggera for initial training where he was placed into a depot battalion before being assigned as a reinforcement for the 49th Battalion. On 16th August 1916, the 4threinforcements for the 49th Battalion embarked on the “Boorara” in Brisbane and arrived in Plymouth on 13thOctober where they were marched in to the 13th Training Battalion at Bovington.
 
While the reinforcements had been at sea, the 49th Battalion as part of the 13th Brigade of the 4th Division AIF had seen its first major actions at Pozieres and Mouquet Farm in August 1916. In total the AIF suffered 23,000 casualties in July and August of that year and the 4th Division Brigades were severely depleted. Edward was posted to his unit in December and was taken on strength on 20th December 1916. The winter of 1916/17 was extremely harsh and as the battalions of the 13th Brigade worked at road mending and light railway construction, men began to show the effects of exposure to such difficult conditions.
 
With the coming of spring in 1917, activity on the western front began to build up when it was discovered that during the winter, the German had constructed an elaborate defensive system some distance behind the positions they had occupied on the Somme. In March, the German forces began a tactical withdrawal back to the Hindenburg Line. The British (and Australian) forces followed the retreat cautiously and by April had come up to the Hindenburg Line at Bullecourt and Noreuil. The 49th Battalion acted as brigade reserve as the 13th brigade took Noreuil and then advanced the position some distance before being relieved and sent back to Albert by train.
 
After coming out of the line, Edward reported to a Casualty Clearing Station with ingrown toes which had turned septic. This was in all probability due to ill-fitting boots and immersion in mud and cold slush. For infantrymen who marched long distances between the reserve and front lines, often over the uneven cobbled French roads, healthy and fit feet were essential. On 2nd May, Edward was loaded onto a hospital ship as a stretcher patient and admitted to the 1st Axillary Hospital at Weymouth. After treatment, Edward was transferred to the Australian Hospital at Harefield and then to convalescence at the Australian depot at Hurdcott. He was finally discharged on 24th August to the infantry depot at Perham Downs. In September Edward began the journey back to his battalion via Southampton and Havre, arriving in the battalion lines at the end of September.
 
While Edward had been in hospital in England, the focus of the British command had shifted north from the Somme into Belgian Flanders and the Ypres salient. The 49th Battalion had been engaged in the Battle of Messines in June and Polygon Wood in September. When Edward rejoined his company, the 13th Brigade was preparing to go back into the line in front of ridge which stretched from Zonnebeke to the village of Passchendaele.
 
While holding the front line trench in the Flanders mud at Passchendaele on 19th October 1917, Edward Gibbs was killed when a high explosive shell landed near his position. Subsequent enquiries through the Red Cross Wounded and Missing Service located two witnesses to Edward’s death. Private N. Gray stated that Edward had been “blown to pieces by a shell; there was nothing left to bury”. Another witness who had known Edward as a schoolmate saw him killed.
 
Edward Gibbs has no known grave. He is instead commemorated on the tablets of the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres. He shares the space with the names of 54,000 British and Dominion soldiers who died in Flanders and have no known grave. Since the dedication of the Menin Gate in 1927, the citizens of Ypres have conducted a memorial service each evening under the vaulted roof of the memorial, except for the four years of occupation in the 1940’s, which includes the recitation of the ode and the playing of the last post.