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Pte. Leslie Stephen Gibbs
British Army 9th (Queen Victoria's Rifles) Btn. London Regiment
from:Enfield
According to my late Uncle, my Grandfather Leslie Gibbs, joined the 9th London Regiment, Queen Victoria’s Rifles as Private No: 395493 but was too young to go to France, so went to Ireland when the troubles began where Irish women threw pans of boiling water at them! He just missed the Somme but was at Passchendaele where he was caught by an explosion and thrown onto barbed wire. He lost his kneecap and had a plate put in behind his knee. He was burned on the back by Mustard Gas – a wound that troubled him after the war. He then went to occupied Germany, Cologne where he said he got on with the Germans until he came home. He then went North to study the wool trade, and met my Granny.
I remember him talking about the trenches and showing me The Wipers Times, but sadly he died before I was really old enough to understand or ask him to recall details. I seem to remember he told me that, because he was young and fast, he had the job of running along the tops of the communication lines with messages when the wires were down. I also have a book of his - an enormous tome of photographs telling the story of the Great War (published by the Daily Express in 1933) and he always used to tell me that he was in one of the pictures, a photo of some soldiers showing off a captured German anti-tank gun. As I look at it now, I can't make out if it is him or not but I notice there is a very faint name, written in pencil beside it that says "Capt. Skinner". So who knows....?
I have been unable to trace his war record. All that I have found is his medal card which only gives his name, number, regiment and allocation of the Victory and British medals - which I have, although neither have his name on them. I also have a miniature set of the trio, so whether these are his also, or perhaps one of his two brothers who also fought, I don't know, these are also without names.
