|
|
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.
If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.
Site Home
Help & FAQs
Features
Submissions
Information
Advertisements
World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
Gnr. Andrew Gibson
British Army 147th Brigade, 10th Bty. Royal Field Artillery
from:Edinburgh
(d.6th Nov 1916)
Andrew Gibson was probably a bit of an adventurer and risk-taker at heart. At the age of 19 in 1901 he volunteered to go and fight in the Anglo-Boer War. By the time he arrived in South Africa the conflict was largely being conducted on horseback - the life of a trooper largely consisted of chasing across miles and miles of scrub to find on arrival that the Boers had all ridden off. Violent interaction was limited but perhaps he gained a love of horses and this influenced his decision to join the RFA. When he signed up in October 1914 the RFA was all about canons being towed hither and thither across the battlefield by teams of horses supporting infantry and cavalry attacks. By 1915 the war had turned into the industrial, entrenched conflict we all know about today. I imagine the transformation and the growing realisation that the fighting was going to go on a lot longer than he had imagined weighed heavily with him, as it did many others.He enlisted for WW1 at the age of 31, as a married man with four children and another on the way. He was destined never to see his fifth child Margaret, who was born when he was in Egypt, just a week or two before he embarked for Gallipoli. Soldiers were occasionally permitted leave, not often and not for long but being far from home, logistical difficulties and the fear of desertion probably condemned him to spend any leave he did get abroad.
He was killed on the Somme on 6th of November 1916 but he had very nearly died the year before. On the trip from Egypt to Gallipoli his brigade consisting of 650 men was on board the troopship SS Manitou when it was intercepted by a Turkish gun boat. They were given a few minutes to evacuate but they only had lifeboats for a third of them. The Turks made three attempts at torpedoeing the Manitou before being chased off by HMS Minerva. It seems like a farce, they were, after all, at a standstill in the water but in the panic to evacuate, one of the lifeboats broke and spilled its contents into the water and 50 men were drowned.
Despite the carnage elsewhere, Andrew was statistically unlucky to have died since only 16 members of the 147th were killed in WW1 post-Gallipoli. The daily war diary entry for 6th November 1916 reads as follows: Weather unsettled. A normal day. 2 shells pitched into 10th Battery low position. The second of these wounded 2 Other Ranks. No.108662 Gnr Cummings R. and No.40635 Gnr A Gibson. Andrew is recorded elsewhere as having died of his wounds later that day and he is buried in Bernafay Wood Cemetery near Montauban.
Robert Cummings, who must have been a mate of Andrew's, survived the shelling that day and indeed the remainder of the war. He returned home to Lancaster where he married and had two children, dying there in 1967 at the age of 77. On his medal card it states: Returned unclaimed.
Related Content:
Can you help us to add to our records?
The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them
Did your relative live through the Great War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial?
If so please let us know.
Do you know the location of a Great War "Roll of Honour?"We are very keen to track down these often forgotten documents and obtain photographs and transcriptions of the names recorded so that they will be available for all to remember.
Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.
Celebrate your own Family History
Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Great War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc.
Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.
The free section of The Wartime Memories Project is run by volunteers.
This website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.
If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running.
Hosted by:
The Wartime Memories Project Website
is archived for preservation by the British Library
Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV
- All Rights Reserved -We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.
