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Petersburg Times (SA: 1887 - 1919) Friday 5 July 1901
In Memoriam Service at Petersburg.
THE LATE TROOPER DAVID HAXTON GIBB.
On Sunday evening, June 30th, a service was conducted by the Rev. W. J. Mortimer in the Petersburg Methodist Church in memory of the late Trooper David Haxton Gibbs, of the Fifth South Australian Bushmen's Contingent, who was numbered amongst the brave "Soldiers of the King" that fell in battle at Reitz, S. Africa, on June 9th. The Church, which was suitably draped, was crowded—many being unable to gain admission. Prior to the service there was a military parade, headed by the local brass band. After the choir had rendered the anthem “Vital Spark" and the selection "Go bury thy Sorrow" by the Band, the Rev. Mortimer very feelingly referred to the deceased trooper, and was listened to with rapt attention. He said: — "The occasion of this service is a source of pain to all of us. We commemorate the death of a member of this Church, of the Christian Endeavour Society and of our young men's class in connection with the Sabbath School. In a brief time this Church has provided two soldiers to fight the battle of their king and country and, singularly enough both have been killed in active service, and both have died as brave and faithful soldiers die. Trooper Smith was among the first from Australia's land to fill a soldier's grave in South Africa and Petersburg and this Church had a particular interest in the sad event. We now have to mourn the death of Trooper David Haxton Gibb, and again Petersburg, and also this Church, has a particular interest in the solemn fact. We take this opportunity of tendering our deepest sympathy to those who mourn the loss. May a kind Providence temper their anguish to the powers of their endurance. They will have the consolation and cheer derivable from the fact that both men were possessed of a clear and masterful conception of their own immorality, and both alike had a simple faith in Jesus Christ as a personal Saviour. To us, as Christian people, these facts stand out as bright lights in the else intolerable darkness. From the death of Stephen down to the latest departure we have had thousands of undeniable proofs that Christian people "die well." They are possessed of that hope which dissipates the gloom and enables them to ask triumphantly the profound query: 'O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory?' Another fact has been distinctly set before us. Napoleon once said in bitter scorn that we were a nation of shopkeepers. But Britain proved much, to his ultimate discomfort, that the ceilings of our shops are over heads of men as intelligent, and over hearts of men as brave as any the wide world over. When first the proposition was made that Australia should send some of her sons to fight side by side with those of the Old Land, there were not wanting many who jeered at the idea; but such jeering has been silenced by clearest demonstration that from our own fair Australian land there have gone forth soldiers with heads as intelligent, and hearts as brave, as any the wide world over. In the words of A. G. Hales —

"Bridle to bridle our sons will ride
With the best that Britain has bred.
And all we ask is an open field
And a soldier's grave for our dead."

Trooper Gibb was but 29 years of age at the time of his death. He was born at Psalters's Springs, on the Alma Plains, and was the 5th son of Mr. James Gibb, now of Walloway. He had been a resident of Petersburg for four years, or thereabouts. His identifications with this church as a member, dates three years back. His conversion took place during a Christian Endeavor Convention. The meeting was conducted in the local Town Hall by Mr. T. H. Sinclair, one of our ablest and most prominent evangelistic laymen. At the Monday evening meeting Trooper Gibb decided for Christ, and associated himself with the Methodist Church. Faithfulness to principle, unaffected profession and devotedness to duty gained the respect and love of all who were connected with him in the service of the King. He left Port Adelaide in the Ormazan, on Feb. 9th, 1901, as a member of the 5th S.A. contingent, and in a letter written to his brother on landing there is a sentence which breathes with a resolute determination to be brave and true in his position. We read that message in the afterlight and it gives it a pathetic interest. He says:—" We have landed with a firm resolution to do our duty as soldiers of the King and to uphold the laurels of our predecessors in S. Africa." How consistently that resolution was kept before him we know from the record of the disaster which occurred at Reitz, on June 6th. The tragic news recorded in our daily papers staggered us. It is a fact that up to May 1st we had heard that the total British losses had reached the alarming number of nearly 15,000 men. These, however, were largely of those who had no personal association with Australia, and naturally seemed to us "more or less of an abstraction." It was statistics. Too much alas! a matter of cold arithmetic. But the last tragedy came home to us. They were our own kith and kin. We had known and loved some of the men—Trooper Gibb was one. He lived well, he died well, and now he fills a British soldier's grave. Surely the words of a leading S.A. journal may well become our prayer, "Slowly as may work the machine of moral evolution when applied to international affairs, surely it must be true that every such disaster on the battlefield as that recently recorded will help to make ultimately impossible war with its essential illogicalities and its inevitable and ever awful tragedies." May that time speedily come. But now slow and painful the evolution. David Haxton Gibb is dead; dead as we count it; killed on the field of action; but let it be remembered that it was with our late brother as with each of us. He had two immortalities. One he has carried forward with him to the presence of his God, the other he has left behind him. In one sense Trooper Gibb is dead. We shall no longer meet the hero in our street, nor shall we see his presence in our Divine services and endeavor meetings. He will no longer take his accustomed place in the Sunday School Class, but he will live in the warmest recollections of his many friends and as a soldier who died for his country. His name shall in company with the rest be written, "not on the sandy margin of the ever sounding sea," it shall be inscribed upon the solid rock of his country's gratitude. His remains will rest with the thousands of his comrades in Afric's distant land. We shall not have the opportunity of standing around his open grave as our last token of respect, but to-night this service shall reveal the fact that we are not slow to appreciate those lofty elements and deeds and characteristics which reveal in man the remains of his aboriginal greatness and the possibilities of his future elevation."
The rev. gentleman then preached a sermon emphasising the necessity for an immediate attention to the Divine call — "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold of eternal life," and proceeded to show that a number of elements that go to the making of a successful soldier are also essential elements in the life of a soldier engaged in the great Christian warfare, particularly calling attention to the need of courage and self-denial.
At the close of the sermon a solo and quartette "Jesu Son of David" (Jude) was rendered by Messrs. Parkes and Symon and Misses Statton and Carter. At the close of the service, which was an exceedingly solemn one, the people stood as the Band played "The Dead March."
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