Arthur Stanley Gibberd was born on December 21st, 1884 in Bedworth, Warwickshire, England. He was the second son of Rev. John and Elizabeth Gibberd. Arthur’s father worked as a cloth merchant, and his older brother Edward worked as his apprentice in England. Arthur fought with the Imperial Yeomanry, a British volunteer force, for three years seeing action in the Second Boer War.
Despite his military background and middle class status, when Arthur volunteered for the Canadian Expeditionary Force in August 1914 he was given the rank of Private. Arthur fought for the 1st Battalion in France as an infantry soldier. Arthur was taken as a prisoner of war at Phalempin in Northern France (the date is unknown). On July 7th, 1915 Arthur was shot in the chest while a prisoner of war and died of his wounds at the age of 30. Unfortunately it is not known why Arthur was shot while a POW. German soldiers buried Private Arthur Stanley Gibberd as the Phalempin Communal Cemetery in France.
Service number: 6457
“Phalempin Communal Cemetery,” Commonwealth War Graves Commission, accessed March 21, 2015, http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/33804/PHALEMPIN%20COMMUNAL%20CEMETERY
