GIBSON, Percival Thomas
| Service Numbers: | 1037A, 1037 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 28 April 1916 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 1st Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Cootamundra, New South Wales, Australia, 27 November 1894 |
| Home Town: | Temora, Temora Municipality, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Locomotive Cleaner |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 5 May 1917, aged 22 years |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Haymarket NSW Government Railway and Tramway Honour Board, Temora Public School Honour Roll, Temora WW1 War Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial (Australian National Memorial - France) |
Biography contributed by John Oakes
Percival Thomas GIBSON (Service Number 1037A) was born on 27th November 1894 at Cootamundra. He commenced work with the NSW Government Railways as a locomotive cleaner at Temora Locomotive Depot on 4th November 1914 as a casual. Just over a year later he had the same role at Tumut but was now permanent. Only three months after gaining this position Percival joined the Expeditionary Forces. On his Attestation Papers, which were signed at Cootamundra on 28th April 1916, he stated that he was not married, gave his father as his next of kin and advised that he had spent three years with the Temora Militia.
He was allotted to the Light Trench Mortar Battery and left Australia from Sydney aboard HMAT ‘Euripides’ on 9th September 1916. He reached Plymout (England) on on 26th October. He went to France in March 1917 and joined the 1st Battalion on 4th April.
His career on the frontline only lasted a month. He was killed in action between 5th and 8th May 1917. Eyewitness accounts pinpoint the actual date to 6th May and agree that he was killed outright after he had come out of action and was resting in a dugout. A very large shell entered the dugout, killing him and other men. He was buried ‘in vicinity of Bullecourt’, but this location was never really known and is lost now. Therefore he is remembered on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial.
- based on notes for the Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board
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