Some of the most far gone photographs that I have ever saved from the dustman.

[caladonia]

Hello there

The photo of Capt Wm Gibbons shows him hearing the battle patch of the 2-6th Manchesters, a red disc on both sleeves.

William

[high wood]

On 09/11/2023 at 14:00, PRC said:

Looks like there are three shots of the same man, as you've already stated. They appear to have been taken in the same session - only head position and expression really varies. From the cap badge that would make the most likely candidate Thomas Gibbons. But is the image on the right hand end also Thomas?

No new IP is claimed for the above and all image rights remain with the current owner.

Who do we think the two men in the overcoats are? From the dress of the OR's in the background does it suggest pre-war or early war, possibly in the UK?

Cheers,
Peter

I think it is the same officer in all of the photographs as his bottom lip is very distinctive. The two officers in the great coats appear to be from the Manchester Regiment, with William Gibbons on the left.

[high wood]

15 hours ago, caladonia said:

Hello there

The photo of Capt Wm Gibbons shows him hearing the battle patch of the 2-6th Manchesters, a red disc on both sleeves.

William

Thank you William, that really helps to tie him down as William Gibbons was commissioned into the 8th (Ardwick) battalion on the 8th July 1915 but was serving with the 2/6th battalion in March 1918.

[Ian Bruce]

You may be interested that I am presently writing about Matthias (later Matthew) Frederick Foulds. Here is a short extract:

He was born in Stockport, Cheshire in 1877. His career can be tracked through a series of medical journals.[i] He joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and was posted as a Lieutenant from Aldershot to South Africa in June 1901. He was dangerously wounded at Harrismith the following December and had his right leg amputated at the knee. Promoted to Captain in 1904, he variously served in India and Aden 1904-9. In 1906, he published a note recommending the use of iced-water enemata to treat sunstroke. He was appointed as specialist operative surgeon at Belfast in 1909 and on outbreak of war was posted to St Helena arriving on26 August 1914. Whilst serving as a doctor in the Royal Army Medical Corps at St Helena during the First World War, he was twice briefly appointed as Colonial Surgeon in place of Dr Arnold. In 1915 he published a note on the use of tincture of iodine to prevent venereal diseases. He left the RAMC in 1922 and was removed from the reserve list in 1933. It is suspected he died in Canada sometime before August 1953.

Like many others before and since, Foulds was drawn to St Helena’s history, albeit only to the five-and-a-half-year period of Napoleon’s exile. He seems to have been given free rein to search through archival material and so came across the diary of Andrew Darling who had acted as undertaker at Napoleon’s funeral in 1821.[ii] He copied and transmitted the text to Arnold Chaplin in Britain.[iii] Chaplin’s first edition of St Helena Who’s Who published in 1914 had mentioned that a manuscript once existed with an exact account by Darling of the arrangements made for Napoleon’s funeral.[iv] On receipt of the diary, Chaplin arranged for its publication in the Times Literary Supplement, giving Foulds full credit for the discovery.v]

Perhaps fired up by this successful collaboration, Foulds must next have examined the church records over the Napoleonic period. Here he will have noticed that a significant number of baptised children were described as “illegitimate”. Turning back the pages he will have seen that these descriptions first began in 1813. He duly passed on his findings to Arnold Chaplin, who in turn incorporated the details in the second edition of his St Helena Who’s Who published in 1919. Chaplin’s first edition only devoted a section to the Reverand Richard Boys but Foulds’ new information allowed this to be expanded to a full chapter in the later edition.

 

---

[i] British Medical Journal, 22 June 1901, 1590; The Lancet, 11 January 1902: Issue 4089, 115; The Lancet, 14 May 1904, 1376; The Lancet  21 April 1906, p1133; The Lancet, 22 December 1906, 1740; The Lancet  30 March 1907, 907; The Lancet, 16 October 1909; The Lancet 5 August 1915, 986; British Medical Journal, 1922, p39; The Lancet, 1933, p271; Victoria Daily Times, 25 August 1953, 2.

[ii] Colin Fox, ‘Napoleon’s Coffin’, Wirebird: The Journal of the Friends of St Helena No 50 (2021): 5–24.

[iii] Hubert N. B Richardson, A Dictionary of Napoleon and His Times (London: Cassell and Company, 1920), 140.

[iv] Arnold Chaplin, A St Helena Who’s Who, or a Directory of the Island during the Captivity of Napoleon, 1st Edition (London: Privately Published, 1914), 62, https://tinyurl.com/ybth33hb. Chaplin claimed that Joseph Lockwood stated in his Guide to St. Helena, published in 1851, that he had in his possession a manuscript left by Darling which he had published it in the St Helena Advocate in 1851. However, a systematic search of this edition of Lockwood’s book did not find any mention of either Darling, Napoleon’s funeral arrangements or of the St Helena Advocate.

[v] ‘Napoleon’s Funeral – a Lost Record’, Times Literary Supplement, 30 September 1915; Arnold Chaplin, ‘Correspondence - Napoleon’s Funeral’, British Medical Journal 2(2858) (9 October 1915): 552.

[Ian Bruce]

Further to my notes on Matthias Frederick Foulds, I should be grateful to be given a permission to reproduce his photograph in my article.

[kenf48]

48 minutes ago, Ian Bruce said:

Further to my notes on Matthias Frederick Foulds, I should be grateful to be given a permission to reproduce his photograph in my article.

Welcome to the GWF

@high wood is an active member of the forum and my tag should alert them to your post.

You can also use the Personal Message system just click on the name an open the dialog box ‘message’

 

[high wood]

19 hours ago, Ian Bruce said:

Further to my notes on Matthias Frederick Foulds, I should be grateful to be given a permission to reproduce his photograph in my article.

Ian,

you have my permission to use the photograph in your article. Please acknowledge its source as being from the Simon Jervis Collection. Thank you, Simon.

 

Edited 4 March by high wood
Correcting typos.