Unsung hero awarded last medal for 1914-18 war

Published on Friday 7 November 2008 21:26

A BRITISH Tommy who spent five days injured in No Man's Land has been awarded the last posthumous medal for service during the First World War.

Alfred Gibbins was critically injured when he was hit by shrapnel in the blood-drenched Battle of Passchendaele in 1917.

The incident left him disabled, but he hid the horrors of the battlefield from his wife and child, who never knew that he had served in the war.

The soldier, who lived in London, took his secrets to the grave in 1956 but his son, Peter Gibbins, recently decided to research his family history – and discovered that his father was an unsung hero.

Mr Gibbins, 61, lobbied the Ministry of Defence and now the late hero has finally been awarded the Silver War Badge for his services to "King and Empire – Services Rendered".

The MoD said that because of the difficulty in finding the necessary evidence, the medal will be the last of its kind and no other posthumous service medals for the First World War will be issued.

Speaking yesterday from his home in Bristol, Mr Gibbins said: "Like so many others, my father laid his life on the line for his country and was badly injured for his troubles.

"He was permanently disabled following the battle of Passchendaele, yet he was never honoured for all he did there. So receiving the badge on his behalf was an incredibly proud moment for me because it recognised his lifetime's sacrifice for this country."

Mr Gibbins, of Ilford, Essex, was working in a shop when he was conscripted as a private into the 6th Battalion The West Yorkshire Regiment. Within weeks he found himself in the bloody trenches of Passchendaele in the infamous battle of Ypres.

It was here where he was critically injured by an incoming mortar shell, which left him for dead in No Man's Land for five days before he was rescued. He suffered severe frostbite to his right foot and a series of wounds to the rest of his body.

He was pulled from the mud by Allied Canadian troops, who carried him to a military hospital, where his right big toe was amputated.

He was later sent back to Britain where he spent 16 months bedridden in a military hospital in Birmingham.

His son said: "When he came out of hospital, dad couldn't walk by himself. His foot was a mess and he had suffered a host of other injuries.

"It meant he could only walk with the aid of a stick, which he carried with him wherever he went."

The MoD said the awarding of the medal was "righting a wrong" that had been caused by a "clerical error".

BACKGROUND

ONE of the bloodiest battles of the First World War, Passchendaele was an attempt to capture the land to the south and east of Ypres in Belgium.

Symbolic of the misery of trench and industrialised warfare, Passchendaele took place on reclaimed marshland that almost never dried out, forcing soldiers to fight and live in thick mud.

The squalor was compounded by the British Army's endless bombardment of the German lines which turned the terrain into a hazard, and an unknown number of soldiers drowned in slippery, rain-filled shell holes.

Lasting five months and ending in a short-lived Allied victory, it cost them half-a-million casualities.

However, the offensive brought to an end the "one more push" philosophy that the stalemate could be broken by simply throwing waves of men at the German trenches.