Arthur Gibbons

This is the story of my hero, my great grandfather, Sergeant Arthur Gibbons.

As a Child

Arthur's childhood, although important, is not all that relevant to the story I wish to tell you about his time fighting in the front lines of World War I. Even though this part of his life is irrelevant to the story I, Kyle Gibbons, feel obliged to at least tell you a bit about his childhood.

Arthur was placed in an orphanage with his other siblings when he was very young. Life in the orphanage was very tough, so at age eleven, Arthur fled from the orphanage, and stowed away on a ship headed for Canada. He planned to work until he could afford to bring his brother and sister to the new world. By working hard on the docks of Halifax, he was able to do this after one year of work.

The Call of War

"England has declared war" was the first sentence Arthur Gibbons wrote in his book A Guest of the Kaiser. He tells us that he was working at the Toronto Electric Light Company when he heard the news. At this point Arthur and his friends, Jim McCreery and Slim Berrill, attempted to support the war effort by joining the Toronto regiment known as the "Queen's Own Rifles." It was a Regiment Arthur had been turned down from before for being too young and for being too short, and even with the war beginning, Arthur was still turned away from the "Queen's Own Rifles" for the same problems.

After all hopes of fighting in the front lines with his friends were lost, Arthur joined the medical corp with the deep desire to be transferred over to the "Queens Own Rifles." Sadly for Arthur, this transfer was turned down and he finally ended up being part of the "Victoria Rifles," a regiment from Montreal. Once Arthur was in the "Victoria Rifles," the general there successfully managed to transfer him to the "Queen's Own Rifles" where he permanently stayed.

The "Queens Own Rifles" then traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to fight in the front lines as part of the Third Battalion of Canada's First Division. This is where Arthur's adventures really began.

The Front Lines

Once Arthur reached England, he and the First Canadian Division were sent to a remote training camp where they spent a few months learning how to fight. After that he and many others trudged all the way to France to fight in the front line trenches of World War I.

The trenches were not a nice place. In fact, they were like living in Hell. According to Arthur, while in the trenches a Canadian soldier was at the mercy of their own British allies who "keep the good guns for themselves, make the Canadians sleep at the bottom of the sleeping holes, and send them on suicide charges into 'no-man's land' that they did not want do themselves." This was all aside from dogging German bullets, artillery, bombs, and walking over their dead comrades.

Arthur saw his fair share of death while in the trenches and did his fair share of killing, but, even through it all, his spirits never fell and he was certain that they would prevail in the end. However, even his high spirits could not prepare him for his final battle!

Behind Enemy Lines

It was in the historic battle of Ypres where Arthur was badly wounded in his right thigh by an exploding bullet during a hopeless final charge to take the German trench. He fell in the middle of the battlefield and was forced to stay there for over three hours until finally, he was dragged past the German trench and left in an open field for three more painful days.

As time passed, Arthur was eventually taken to German doctors who tortured him for information by twisting the foot on his injured leg completely upside-down, taking away his ability to ever fight again!

Arthur was then taken, as a captive of war, to the infamous Giessen, a German prison camp where his captors intended him to spend the remainder of the war.

Arthur's Escape

Arthur did manage to free himself from Giessen and return to Canada, but his escape was not an easy task. It all started when Arthur and many other prisoners heard a rumour of an upcoming prisoner exchange between Germany and England. Arthur saw this as the perfect way to leave Giessen and, to make sure he was chosen for the trade, Arthur acted like he was losing his mind. Imagine that, having to act like a lunatic for days on end just to escape!

Arthur got lucky and was successful in leaving Giessen. He returned to Canada shortly after, and the Canadian doctors attempted to fix his twisted foot. They were somewhat successful, but he was still no longer able to fight in the war. Knowing this, Arthur traveled south to recruit U.S soldiers. He actually managed to recruit over 12,000 new U.S soldiers who fought in the war.

This was the end of Arthur's fighting career.

After the War

Due to his crippled leg, Arthur never fought in the Second World War. Instead he got married, raised a family and, as the generations passed, I, Kyle Gibbons, came to be. This was the legacy of my great grandfather and my hero, Sergeant Arthur Gibbons.