An interesting Victory Medal awarded to Sapper D. H. Gibson, Royal Engineers, who served as a Tunneller with No. 176 Company and was likely involved in the construction of the extensive gallery network at Vimy Ridge

Gibson returned home to Nottinghamshire only to have a ‘marvellous escape’ when caught by a violent thunderstorm one evening as he walked back from the local mine – his accompanying friend died on the spot after been burned from ‘the chin to the sole of his foot’ by a lightning bolt

Victory Medal 1914-19 (158361 Spr. D. H. Gibson. R.E.) nearly extremely fine £40-£50

David Henry Gibson was born at Newthorpe Common, Nottinghamshire, around 1887, and worked as a coal miner in the local pits. He attested for the Royal Engineers at Hucknall on 2 February 1916, his service papers stating him taking lodgings around that time at Hampden Street, Giltbrook, Nottinghamshire. Posted to France, Gibson joined No. 176 Company on 1 July 1916 and appears to have spent approximately two years as a tunneller. Conditions became so bad underground and in the trenches on the Western Front that he reported to the 59th Field Ambulance in July 1918 suffering from mosquito bites; transferred to No. 4 General Hospital at Camiers, the state of his thighs was such as to necessitate evacuation home to Chester War Hospital to recover for 17 days.

As the War neared its weary end, Gibson was posted to a Tunnelling Depot Company at Crowborough before being finally demobilised. He then returned home to Nottinghamshire and his former life as a collier. An article which was published on page 7 of the South Notts Echo on 19 June 1920 notes the following episode:

‘Killed in a Field
Newthorpe Common Miner’s Tragic End

A violent thunderstorm broke over Eastwood and district between 10.30 and 11 o’clock on Saturday night, causing the death of a Newthorpe Common miner named Thomas Bates, aged 39, who leaves a widow and six children. The deceased’s companion, a miner named David Henry Gibson of Hempden Street, Newthorpe Common, had a marvellous escape, being stunned by the lightning and rendered prostrate.

Gibson states that he was in company with Bates from 7.45 p.m., and they were returning home from Newthorpe about 10.30 across the fields. He had just got over a stile and his companion was following when there was a vivid flash of lightning and he remembered no more. It afterwards transpired that Gibson, lying in an unconscious state for half-an-hour, had sufficiently recovered to call for help, and a man named Harry Goodin, a miner, of New Eastwood, who was passing on the main road, heard the shout and went to their assistance, finding Gibson still in a dazed condition and his companion dead.

P.C. Hindley, who received information and went to the scene of midnight, states that the deceased, who burned from the chin to the sole of his foot, the fluid passing from the chest down the left side, where it burned a hole in the outer-case of his silver watch, also breaking and charring the watch chain. The watch had stopped at four minutes to 11. The lightning also dislocated one of the overhead wires on the Notts. and Derbyshire tramways at Giltbrook, and the late cars returning from Nottingham were held up until the early hours of Sunday morning, many passengers for Eastwood and Heanor having to complete their journey on foot.’