SECOND LIEUTENANT EDGAR DANIELL GIBSON
ROYAL FLYING CORPS
9TH OCTOBER 1917 AGE 19
BURIED: CHOCQUES MILITARY CEMETERY, FRANCE
There is a beautiful stained glass window in the Lady Chapel of the church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxted, which shows the martial saints Martin and George. The dedication reads:
To the glory of God and in undying remembrance of Malcolm Reginald Gibson, Lt 7th East Surrey Regt, killed in action at Hulloch, France, on 8th Oct 1915 aged 25 and Edgar Darnell Gibson, 2nd Lt RFC, killed on active service near Bethune, France, on 9th Oct 1917, aged 19. Dearly loved eldest and youngest sons of Walter M and Katherine M Gibson - Oxted.
Both brothers have the same inscription, 'Pro aris et focis', the family's motto. This translates literally as 'for our altars and fires', the equivalent of hearth and home. In the Christian world it came to mean both for what was both the sacred and the civil good: God, family and country. The boys' father, Walter Gibson, chose it as his motto when he was knighted in 1920 for his services to the British crown. He had been Secretary to the Privy Purse through the reigns of Queen Victoria, King Edward VII and King George V.
Maurice Reginald Gibson, educated at Radley College and Exeter College, Oxford, volunteered in August 1914 on the outbreak of war and served as a machine gun officer with the East Surrey Regiment. He was killed in action on 8 October 1915.
His brother Edgar, educated at Wellington College, joined the RFC when he left school and went to the front on 22 August 1915. He was killed the day after the second anniversary of his brother's death, on 9 October 1917. Edgar Daniell Gibson's second name is spelt variously as Daniel, Daniell and Darnell. I believe that Daniell is the correct spelling because that was his Gibson grandmother's maiden name.
The middle brother, Claude Manley Gibson, also served in the RFC. On 16 May 1916 he was returning from a patrol when his plane was hit by ground fire. The plane crashed into a ploughed field but Gibson survived with only minor injuries.