Five: Warrant Officer Class I, Bandmaster H. T. J. Gebbels, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, later Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry

1914 Star, with later slide clasp (8035 L.Cpl. H. T. J. Gebbels. 2/Oxf: & Bucks: L.I.); British War and Victory Medals (8035 Cpl. H. T. J. Gebbels. Oxf. & Bucks. L.I.); Jubilee 1935, unnamed as issued; Army L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 1st issue (5373088 Sjt. H. T. J. Gebbels. Oxf. & Bucks. L.I.) heavy contact marks, therefore good fine (5) £140-£180

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum.

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Henry Theodore Jefferies Gebbels was born in 1891, and attested for the Oxford Light Infantry at Chatham, as a band boy, on 2 October 1905. During the Great War he served initially with the 2nd Battalion on the Western Front from 14 August 1914. He was appointed Band Sergeant in 1919, and entered Kneller Hall in 1921 on a Bandmasters Course. On 2 October 1924 he was appointed Bandmaster of the 2nd Battalion, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry and served in India until 1935. He became Director of Music to the Governor of Bombay for two years and retired in 1937.

Gebbels subsequently served as Instructor of Music and Bandmaster at Rugby School, retiring in 1967, after 30 years at the school. He died in Rugby on 9 June 1968, aged 77. He appears on the 1935 Jubilee Medal Roll for India as Director of Music His Excellency The Governor’s Band, Bombay. He is also recorded as having been awarded the Meritorious Service Medal as a Warrant Officer Class I in the D.C.L.I.

Sold with copied research including various photographic images of the recipient.