2/4th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
Augustus Frederick Gibbons was the son of Frederick and Sarah Gibbons, who lived at 80 Upper Bath Road, Cheltenham. He was born in about 1881. According to the 1911 Census his occupation was a greengrocer’s assistant, which was his occupation on attestation.
On 11 December 1915 he attested into the Gloucestershire Regiment and was posted to the 3/4 (Reserve) Battalion. He was mobilised on 24 March 1916, posted to 2/4 Glosters and on 2 September he was posted to France.
On 28 November 1916, during one of the final actions of the Somme Offensive, he suffered a bullet wound to his right leg just below the knee. On the same day he was also struck by shrapnel on the hands, legs and thighs.
His wounds were sufficiently severe for him to be evacuated to England and on 30 November 1916 he was admitted to hospital at Mill Road Infirmary, Liverpool, where he stayed until 1 August 1917, when he was transferred to the Beaufort War Hospital in Bristol, remaining there until 11 September. It would appear that he spent the period 22 to 29 September in Co. Cork,
Ireland. During his recovery from his wounds he complained of giddiness and breathlessness and pains in the cardiac area. He was subsequently diagnosed as having a weak heart.
This led to his discharge from the Army on 23 November 1917 and he was awarded a Silver War Badge and granted a 50% disability pension, as his condition was deemed to have been aggravated by war service.
He died at 80 Bath Road, Cheltenham on 11 July 1918 and was buried in Cheltenham Cemetery, where a standard CWGC headstone marks his grave. He is remembered on the Cheltenham Town Memorial and that in St Philip & St James’ Church, Grafton Road. His photo had appeared in the Gloucestershire Graphic of 4 May 1918.