Missing gun


Arthur Gibbs' WW1 service revolver, Mark V Webley revolver, serial number 134554

Family might be interested to see these pictures of AG's service revolver, with his name A Gibbs engraved on it.  AG joined the East Surrey Regiment (today existing under the umbrella of The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment), on 26 Feb 1915 and transferred into the then newly formed Welsh Guards on 9 Sep 1915.  I came by the photos in 2014 when I was enquiring with Welsh Guards about AG's Military Cross.  

The photos had been sent to Welsh Guards in 2006 by a retired US lawyer / gun enthusiast, living in San Francisco;  he had come across the gun when invited by another gun enthusiast to 'have a play' with it.  The first mentioned gun enthusiast had been interested by the engravings on the butt of the gun, photographed it, and wrote to Welsh Guards regimental HQ in London to see if he could find out anything about it.  In 2006 the regimental HQ was unable to help but in 2014 gave me copies of the correspondence (including the photos) and I was able to speak to the retired US lawyer, then still living in San Francisco.

I wondered in 2014 how the gun happened to be in the USA in the ownership of a gun enthusiast;  and at around the time saw Emma Turner (nee Gibbs) one day, and showed the photos to her.   She said, 'I know exactly how it came to be in America;  Daddy took it there and sold it!'.   So the supposition is that that AG would have come home from WW1 and taken up civilian and family life, married Barbar, etc, etc, and when it was David's turn to go to war in the 1940s AG would have said to him, David, take my gun.  David did so, survived WW2, returned home, married, had two daughters, divorced and emigrated to America to live in New York where (I suppose) he sold it and the gun worked its way from owner to owner to arrive in San Francisco in 2006.

I'm having a go at finding it.  It's a needle in a haystack but internet and www make it just bearable / possible where it would have been plainly ridiculous twenty years ago.

Simon, s.keeling@icloud.com

2 comments: