WORKING NOTES

Born 25/11/1897, Swansea. Parents - James Robert & Elizabeth (Lizzie)

1901 - Adm Byrnmill infants. 80 St Helens Ave DOB 25/11/97

1901 - 80 St Helens Ave, Swansea. 4yo. W parents, older sister and grandparents.

1911 - 74 Fleet St, Swansea. 14yo bn Swansea. School. W parents & older sis. Father Wood Sawyer - Timber Merchant - importer

1921 - 74 Fleet St, Swansea. 24y7m. Occ-Shipping Clerk - Burgess & Co Ltd, Shipbrokers, Swansea. W widowed father, older sis and granny

1925 - Married Averil Cecilia Brown, Christ Church, Swansea 21/11/1925. Add 74 Fleet St, Occ-Clerk.

1939 - 70 Lon Mafon, Swansea. DOB 25/11/1896. Occ -General Cargo Wharfinger. W Averil and Alan B (1927)

1961 - Burgess photo - worked there all his life??

1963 - Died aged 66, Q1, Swansea

No SR

Enl 5/9/14 - aged 16y10m - lied???. In Dec 14 pic of recruits

Egypt per fam photos

- No SR

- Thomas Gibson enlisted on 5 September 1914 as a Gunner in the first wave of wartime recruits into the Brigade. If I’ve got it right, I think he lied about his age as he wasn’t yet 17.

- He would have trained in Swansea, likely still living at home.

- After completing his training he would have joined the Brigade at either Northampton (Dec 1914) or Cambridge (early 1915) where they were inspected by the King and in May moved to Bedford.

- In November, they were finally given orders to move overseas and 401 men of the Brigade (inc T Gibson) travelled from Southampton to Le Havre on the night of 21/22 Nov 1915. By that time he had been promoted to A/Bdr.

- From Le Havre they moved south to the Somme where they undertook their front line training. At that time, the Somme was a quiet sector, recently taken over from the French.

- Just before Christmas 1915, they came out of the line and received orders to rejoin their Division (the 53rd Welsh Territorial Division) in Egypt. The Divisional Artillery had been fortunate as the rest of the division had fought in Gallipoli and suffered terribly.

- In Feb 1916, the Brigade made the dangerous 5 day crossing from Marseilles to Alexandria and from there went to Beni Salama nr Cairo where the Division recovered and acclimatised.

- It was at this time the men were given leave to explore Cairo (a short train journey away) and the Sphinx pic was most likely taken.

We can be pretty certain of everything up to this point. The rest is the ‘normal’ experience of a man of the Brigade.

- In May 1916, the division took over a section of Suez Canal defences nr Ismalia. It was hot and boring work.

- Later in the year, their commander decided attack was the best form of defence and in November they started a 2 year march across the Middle East.

- In November 1916 they started the march across the Sinai Desert – extremely hot, thirsty and difficult as they had to move their heavy artillery pieces across soft sand.

- This phase concluded in early 1917 at Gaza – the gateway to Jerusalem. They initially fought 2 unsuccessful battles early in the year and after a change of leadership finally took Gaza and shortly after Jerusalem at the end of 1917.

- In 1918, they continued to push back the Turkish Armies through the Judean Hills into Jordan. The final months of the war were marked by terrible illness and many men succumbed to Malaria and Dysentery.

- Following the defeat of the Turkish Army, the Brigade shipped back to Alexandria to await their return home.

- This was delayed for a couple of months due to civil unrest but the men finally started to return in Feb 1919, being demobilised shortly after their return.

- For his service in the Great War, Thomas Gibson was awarded the 1914/15 star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.