Name: Arthur Forbes Gibson
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Date of birth: September 15, 1883
Place of birth: Nowra, NSW
Link to Wagga: Place of employment
Date of enlistment: April 4, April 1915
Age at enlistment: 31 years 6 months
Occupation: School teacher
Religion: Presbyterian
Next of kin: Wife, Eva Ruby Gibson, Goulburn
Battalion or Regiment: 19th Battalion, 1st Reinforcement
Battlefields: Gallipoli
Outcome: Returned to Australia, 9 February 1916
ARTHUR Forbes Gibson was born in Nowra, on the South Coast of NSW, the third of seven children born to John and Isabella (née McLean).
In 1908, in Goulburn, Arthur married Eva Ruby Hunt, and by 1911 the young couple had moved to Wagga when Arthur took a teaching position at Brucedale Public School (situated on the northern outskirts of the city).
On August 18, 1911, Eva and Arthur welcomed their first child, a son, John Arthur, who was born in Wagga.
Shortly after the outbreak of World War I, Arthur became one of the many public school teachers throughout the Riverina who enlisted in the AIF.
The Daily Advertiser of Thursday, April 8, 1915, carried an advertisement for the sale of household furniture and effects and a buggy and harness belonging to Arthur Gibson of Brucedale Public School, who was leaving the district.
Arthur had enlisted four days prior to this advertisement.
His wife and infant returned to live with her family in Goulburn for the duration of his active duty.
Arthur embarked from Sydney in late June, and following training in Egypt proceeded to Gallipoli, landing at Anzac Cove on August 21.
Ten days later, Arthur joined the Mediterranean Expeditionary Forces.
At Gallipoli, the 19th Battalion participated in the last action of the August Offensive – the attack on Hill 60 - before setting into defensive routine in the trenches.
From mid-September until its withdrawal from the peninsula on the night of December 19, the men of the 19th were responsible for the defence of Pope’s Hill.
Arthur’s active service ended two months before the Allied withdrawal from the Dardanelles.
On October 15, he boarded the Hospital Ship ‘Formosa’, and was transferred to hospital in Malta.
The battlefields of Gallipoli were dry and hot, and as the summer heat intensified, conditions there deteriorated for the troops of both sides.
Primitive sanitation led to a plague of flies and the outbreak of disease.
Thousands of Allied soldiers were evacuated from Gallipoli suffering from dysentery, diarrhoea or enteric fever.
Arthur joined their ranks, suffering from diarrhoea, and diagnosed with enteric.
From Malta, Arthur was transferred to a number of hospitals in Egypt.
The notes in Arthur’s ‘Medical Report on an Invalid’ conclude that he was suffering from Paratyphoid A, having picked up an infection (Enterica) while on active service.
Arthur’s symptoms included an enlarged spleen and rose-coloured abdominal spots with a temperature of between 99 and 105 degrees.
Arthur was seriously ill, and had a relapse prior to being admitted to the No. 1 Australian General Hospital in Heliopolis.
On February 9, 1916, Arthur boarded the HS ‘Nestor’ at Suez.
He was bound for Australia, and ‘3 months change’.
He never returned to active service, being discharged from the AIF as medically unfit five months later.
John Arthur Gibson, Arthur and Eva’s first son, born in Wagga in 1911, enlisted with the Royal Australian Air Force during World War II and served as wireless operator/belly gunner.
Sadly, John was killed in action when his plane, a Mitchell 41-12491, was shot down over Lae in May 1942, following a bombing raid.
He was just 30 years old.
Arthur died in1970 in Lismore, aged 87.