“I can tell you I wouldn’t mind being at home now. It would be a bit warmer than it is here. I wasn’t satisfied when I was at Blackboy Hill but if I was back there now I wouldn’t be in a hurry to get away. I’ve seen enough of the trenches to satisfy me but I suppose I will see some more before long.” - Private Basil Narroway Gibbs, Western Front, France 28 October 1916

Basil wrote this letter to his brother Herbert of Ferguson Valley. Less than ten days later Basil was killed in action during intense fighting east of Flers, in the Somme Valley.

Basil, born on 2 March 1889, was the second of nine children of Samuel Gibbs and Lavinia Gibbs née Hurst, farmers in Ferguson Valley (reference). His grandparents, James Dagley Gibbs and Charlotte Gibbs née Narroway, were pioneers of Australind and Bunbury. At age 26 and 4 months, Basil, the unmarried log faller who lived on the family farm, signed up for war in Bunbury on 16 August 1915 (reference). He was described as 5 feet 7 inches tall, of fair complexion with blue eyes and fair hair (reference). 

No doubt the lure of travel played a considerable role in Basil’s determination to enlist, and he expressed this in a letter to his brother when an acquaintance, Wally Grover’s brother died, lamenting that the “poor fellow was never meant to see Europe I suppose”.

In a letter home dated 20 September 1915, Basil wrote that he believed enlisting would be good for him and soon “take the shyness out of a fellow”. He continued, “I have got in with a fine lot of chaps. We get plenty of music up here, there is a concert on every night this week, of course there’s always a big crowd there, different to the Ferguson concerts. I haven’t got cold feet yet but they say there are a few on the camp with them. We have got through the worst part of the drill now it is a bit more interesting now and is likely to get better as we get on further. I will be glad when we get onto the musketry drill”.

On 29 October 1915 he wrote – “I don’t think it will be long now before we are shifted from here. I reckon we will be transferred into reinforcements in less than a fortnight. Things don’t seem too good at the front lately and that will help us get away quicker”. 

Basil disembarked at Alexandria, Egypt from the Medic on 16 February 1916. From the Heliopolis camp on 24 February 1916 he wrote: “We had a real good trip over but for all that I prefer to be on the land. We stopped at 4 different ports on our way over so I have seen a few different places already. We came through the Canal and disembarked at Alexandria. I have been out to see the Pyramids but didn’t start early enough to have a proper look at them. They are a good size and how they were built and what for beats me. We are camped right alongside Heliopolis so can go in there [to Cairo] every night if we like. It is about 4 miles from here to Cairo and about 13 to the Pyramids and you can see them quite plain from here so you can guess what size they are.”

The soldiers embarked for overseas on the Oriana on 21 March and arrived at Marseilles, France six days later. From Northern France on 18 May, Basil wrote home saying he had been in France for about eight weeks. “We are not in the firing line yet and I don’t think we are likely to be for a few weeks but of course we don’t know when they will send us. The Germans tried to drop bombs on the Camp here on the 25th of April but they didn’t do any damage. The closest one to us was about a ¼ of a mile away. It was about 12 at night when they came. They made a big noise and woke us all up but when we got out of our tents we couldn’t see anything of the airship that was dropping them. It is quite a common thing to see aeroplanes flying around here. It’s wonderful how they can manage them. Of course they are not enemy planes. We have to march about 3 miles from here nearly every morning to the training camp. The “bullring” we call it. We have been there so often now that I am about tired of going”. He closed his letter asking for his brother to write whenever he could as he liked to get letters from home.

On 20 June, Basil wrote home from C Company 28th Battalion, 7th Infantry Brigade, AIF France saying he had been there for nearly three months but had only joined the Battalion a fortnight before. He told his family he was in the reserve line “but we get quite close enough for me occasionally”. He then takes on his farmer persona, asking about the goings on back in Ferguson. “I haven’t had a decent apple since I left the West. I have had plenty of oranges both here and at Heliopolis”. He then describes crops being grown in the area around his camp, and inquires of his own family’s potato crop. “It is summer time here now and there is only about 4 or 5 hours dark now. It’s as cold here now as it is in winter at home”. He reinforced to his family, as in previous letters, that he was quite alright.

At the end of July Basil received gunshot wounds to his head and shoulder and was transferred to Number 2 Australian General Hospital, Wimereux. By 10 August he was transferred from the hospital, back to his unit on 14 August. By the 19th he was back at the Front (reference). 

This was his final letter sent to his family dated 28 October 1916 -  “I don’t think I was ever so cold in my life as I was yesterday morning. We had to get out of bed about 4 o’clock and march about 5 miles. It was alright while we were moving but after we stopped it was awful cold. The pack we have to carry is enough to keep anybody warm, mine consists of two blankets and an overcoat besides a lot of other things and when I get them all together I can tell you it is a pretty fair weight. The blankets are very handy at night though.” He goes on to say how he wouldn’t mind being at home now.

On 27 November 1916 the Postmistress, Dardanup received the following telegram – “Please inform Mr S. Gibbs Ferguson via Dardanup that his son Pte B.N. Gibbs was killed in action between 3rd & 6th November, and convey Defence Dept sympathy.”

Like many of his mates on the Western Front at that time, Basil has no known grave. His service to his country is recognised at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra and the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, France (reference). He is remembered to this day by family, still farming in the Ferguson Valley.

More information on Basil and his family can be found on the website ANZAC Heroes: Great War 1914-1918, as well as an interview with Basil’s nephew produced by the Bunbury Oral History Group.

Written by Christine Hunter, Basil’s Great Niece, with the use of family letters for the Museum of Perth.