Documents relating to Gerald Gibson

Nothing has been heard about Private Gerald Gibson of Duke of Wellington's Regiment, since going over the top on the 3rd of September 1916. Aged 21.

He enlisted in February 1916.

He was sent to France in June 1916.

He was formerly the cinematograph operator at Todmorden Hippodrome.

He lodged with Mrs Shackleton, 87 Cambridge Street, Todmorden

The mother of Private Gerald Gibson, Duke of Wellington's Regiment, of 6 Tipping Street, Manchester, had sent a letter to the Red Cross, enclosing a photo of her son that had been found on a body thought to be his. The photo had been sent to her by the mother of Private W. Greenwood, Duke of Wellington's Regiment.

She told the Red Cross that if it was her son, there should be other photos in his pocket, signed Madam Ali, and asked for the reply to go to her or to his son's landlady, Mrs Shackleton, 87 Cambridge Street, Todmorden. She also said there should be a copy of a photo of her and him on her son, which she'd sent to the paper and asked them to print (to be printed in the following weeks edition).

She'd had a reply from the Red Cross, which said they had spoken to a friend of her son's, Private H. Claxton, who'd said that their regiment had lost heavily at Thiepval, with many of their comrades lying about unburied for a week or more.

He'd received a copy of the Todmorden Advertiser while in hospital and another wounded man had recognised the photo of Private Gibson and said he'd seen his body a day or two earlier and had found a photo in his pocket which was the same as the photo in the newspaper.

Private Claxton had told the man (presumably Private W. Greenwood) to send the letter to Private Gibson's mother

Photo of Private Gerald Gibson, his mother and an older man (possibly his father) 

Private Gerald Gibson now presumed to have died on the 3rd of September 1916. A photo of him was found on a body at Beaumont Hamel by Private Greenwood of Eastwood. After interviewing Private Greenwood, the War Office now assumes that this was his body.

His father and mother went under the stage names of Sid Ali and Madam Ali.

He was their only son