Profile

GIBSON, Ernest Stanley
(Service number 6/462)

Aliases
First Rank	Private	Last Rank	Sergeant

Birth

Date	20/06/1890	Place of Birth	Timaru

Enlistment Information

Date	11 August 1914	Age
Address at Enlistment	117 Church Street, Timaru
Occupation	Saw mill employee
Previous Military Experience	Volunteers; 2nd Reserve Regiment (still belongs)
Marital Status	Single
Next of Kin	Mrs GIBSON, Church Street, Timaru
Religion	Methodist
Medical Information	Height 5 feet 8½ inches. Weight 154 lbs. Chest measurement 33¾-36¼ inches. Complexion fair. Eyes grey. Hair light brown. Sight normal. Hearing good. Colour vision normal. Limbs well formed. Full and perfect movement of all joints. Chest well formed. Heart and lungs normal. Teeth good. Free from hernia, varicocele, varicose veins, haemorrhoids, inveterate or contagious skin disease. Vaccinated. Good bodily and mental health. No slight defects. Lower third back of right forearm 2 semicircular tattoo marks (black).

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	Main Body
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	Canterbury Infantry Battalion
Date	16 October 1914
Transport	Tahiti or Athenic
Embarked From	Lyttelton, Canterbury	Destination	Suez, Egypt

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With	Canterbury Infantry

Military Awards

Campaigns	Egyptian; Balkan - Gallipoli
Service Medals	1914-1915 Star; British War Medal; Victory Medal
Military Awards

Award Circumstances and Date

No information

Prisoner of War Information

Date of Capture
Where Captured and by Whom
Actions Prior to Capture
PoW Serial Number
PoW Camps
Days Interned
Liberation Date

Discharge

Date	25 February 1916	Reason	No longer physically fit.

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date	3 May 1962	Age	72 years
Place of Death	Timaru
Cause
Notices	Timaru Herald, 4 May 1962
Memorial or Cemetery	Timaru Cemetery
Memorial Reference	General Section; Row 131; Plot 61
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Ernest Stanley GIBSON was a son of Joseph and Margaret Ann (née FOX) GIBSON. He was a brother of Sydney Harold GIBSON who died of wounds in 1917, and of Herberrt James GIBSON who also served in WWI. Ernest, like his brother Herbert, may have been a member of the Star Football Club. At the club's annual meeting in April 1915 his name (E. Gibson) was among those forwarded to the South Canterbury Rugby Union for the compilation of a New Zealand Roll of Honour. Ernest was one of many keen and determined applicants at the Drill Shed on 11 August 1914. He was not one of those rejected, mostly for defects to the teeth and one or two on account of height; he passed the medical exanimation and was sworn in. The successful applicants were liable to be called up at any moment, and it was quite probable that they would leave Timaru in a matter of days for the central camp at Christchurch as part of the 2nd South Canterbury Regiment's quota. Invalided to New Zealand per Willochra on 21 September 1915,

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [28 October 2013]; NZ Defence Force Personnel Records (Archives NZ Ref. AABK 18805 W5539 0044361) [13 July 2016]; Timaru Herald, 12 August 1914, 16 April 1915, Sun, 5 September 1914, 25 August 1915, Star, 19 & 30 October 1915 (Papers Past) [01 September 2014; 13 October 2014; 12 February 2015; 03 July 2015; 16 August 2015]; Timaru Cemetery headstone imahe (Timaru District Council) [29 October 2013]; Probate record (Archives NZ/FamilySearch) [23 June 2014]; Timaru Herald, 4 May 1962 (Timaru District Library) [

External Links

Researched and Written by

Currently Assigned to

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.

Tell us more

Do you have information that could be added to this story? Or related images that you are happy to share? Submit them here!