Name
Herbert John Gibbs
1877
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
24/01/1917
41
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Rifleman
206453
Rifle Brigade
24th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War Medal
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
AGRA CANTONMENT CEMETERY
Plot R. Grave 197.
India
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Berkhamsted Town Memorial, St Peter's Church Memorial, Berkhamsted
Pre War
Herbert John Gibbs was born in Shenstone, Lichfield, Staffordshire in 1877 , the son of John and Jane Dodd (nee Gibbs). (N.B. his birth was registered as 'Gibbs, Herbert Dodds J.').
On the 1881 Census the Dodd family were living in Shenstone village, Staffordshire where his father was working as a coachman (domestic service). They remained there in 1891.
He married Clara Bedall on 9 December 1900 in Great Berkhamsted under the surname of Gibbs and they lived at 15 Bridge Street, Berkhamsted. By the 1911 Census the family were living at 14 Bridge Street, Berkhamsted, were he was working as a gas stoker. They had six sons, Herbert, Ernest, William, Henry, Frederick and Reginald, although sadly William died in infancy.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Hertford and initially joined the Hertfordshire Regiment, later transferring to the 24th Battalion, Rifle Brigade.
Herbert died on 24 January 1917, aged 41, from perihepatitis. (inflammation of the coating of the liver) and is buried in Agra Cantonment Cemetery, Madras, India.
Additional Information
His widow received pay owing of £17 7s 5d and a pension of £1 11s 3d a week.
N.B. Herbert appears to have been born before his parents' marriage, (yet to be located) , but adopted the surname Dodd, only reverting to the registered surname of Gibbs at the time his marriage.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild
