1893-1918
The Gamekeeper and Chauffeur
Thy Will Be Done50

Born on 7th June 189335, George Gibson was the third3 of several children born to parents Ann and her husband John, an agricultural Labourer3. Three weeks later, on 28th June, George was baptized in the village Primitive Methodist Chapel16.

As he grew up in the family home, Chapel Cottages, Cockshutt4, during the difficult economic times of the era20 George would have been accustomed to a life dominated by poverty20 and the struggle to make ends meet on his Father’s meagre wages52. As with so many children, young George would have been used to working whenever he could, thus contributing towards the family finances51. In the “sparsely populated” farming village13, these simple jobs would have ranged from scything and spreading manure, to unloading hay from wagons8, chores he would have continued once he had begun attending the local school1.
With his schooldays behind him, in an are noted for its “quiet woodlands and plantations (which) dot the countryside, providing cover for game birds”42, it seems that George worked on local estates where he eventually found employment as a Gamekeeper4. Poorly paid44, but “recompensed in kind”44 the position was considered “honourable and onerous”44 burdened by numerous duties, including guarding against poachers28 and various administrative tasks34. He would also have maintained, managed and driven shoot transport34, which he seems to have favoured, for shortly afterwards he had moved to Aberayron, where he was employed for four years as chauffeur for a Dr Davies54.

In 1916, with no end in sight to the war, George enlisted53 with the South Wales Borderers. Once his array of organisational and mechanical skills had been identified, he was attached to XVIII Mechanical Transport, Army Service Corps40 for which he would have been paid 6/- per day31. Subsequently Private G Gibson M/27941811 was deployed to the Western Front Theatre of War11.
Frequently regarded as one of the “unsung heroes of the British Army in the Great War”40, the ASC was responsible for maintaining the supply chain of men, food and equipment for the infantry on the front line on an unprecedented scale49. In conditions and on a scope and rate which had never been experienced before, all forms of transport were utilized in their deployment: railways, water transport, horses and motorised vehicles40, often forming a convoy, frequently under enemy attack.


It was during one such incident, during the 1918 Spring Offensive46, that Private George Gibson sustained serious injuries21 whilst driving his motor lorry53. He died on 31st May 191818. Laid to rest in Ligny-St. Flochel British Cemetery, Averdoingt, France18, he was posthumously awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal11.
Just three months earlier, on a return home on leave, George had married Sarah Ann Evans23 a Domestic Servant12 in the Parish Church of Cilcennin, on Wednesday 13th March 191812. At her request18, his headstone bears the poignant but simple inscription “Thy Will Be Done”50.
We Will Remember Him.
GIBSON_GEORGE
Private George Gibson, M/279418, XVIII Corps Mechanical Transport, Army Service Corps.
Died of wounds in France on 31st May 1918.
Buried at Ligny-St. Flochel British Cemetery, Averdoingt, France. Grave I. C. 15.
… in the quiet of a chill Winter’s night
Your voice comes hushed to me
Full of forgotten memories: you and I
Dreamed great dreams of our future in those days,
Setting our feet on undiscovered ways …25