Military Connections
None of the families in our own tree would be considered as having a strong military connection. A number of people have served in the armed forces over the years however, particularly in the Gilbourne family. The earliest found so far is George Gilborn, who joined the 4th regiment of foot in 1811. He was closely followed by his older brother, William, who joined the 3rd Foot in 1813. Both went on to serve in the Battle of Waterloo, despite George's injury earlier in the year at the Battle of New Orleans. George became a yeoman warder ('Beefeater') at the Tower of London after leaving the army. Neither of these have yet been linked to our own tree.
The Gilborne family shown in tree 6 originated in Ireland, had strong miltary connections, and feature here as a result of living in England for many years while serving in the army.
James
Gillborn (aka James Gillman and James Gilbourne), served in the Marines
for 6 years before joining the 89th Foot where he served in the West Indies,
and briefly in Canada, as well as in the UK and Ireland. His service
record in the 89th Foot has been completely researched from Army records at
the National Archives (or Public Records Office as it was a t the
time). The cover page of his enlistment in the marines is shown right.
The brothers Robert and James Gilbourne served in the Boer war in South Africa, James losing his life at the Battle of Boschbult in 1902 and Robert being declared medically unfit for further duty the following year.
In the First and Second World Wars of course, many people were called up for service. James and Catherine Gilbourne, having already had one son killed in the Boer War were to lose two more, William and Walter, as a result of the first world war, in 1920 and 1916 respectively.
Cecil Gilbourne, son of Catherine and Samuel
Gilbourne, was killed near Nieuport in Belgium in 1917. He was
serving in the 1st/4th Bn, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.
Percy Gilbourne joined the Royal Engineers in
1914, and managed to survive the war.
His nephew, Sergeant Norman Leivers, had a lucky escape when his cigarette case stopped a bullet during WWII.
Stephen Bevan, serving in the South Wales
Borderers, was killed at the Battle of Loos in 1915.
Albert Gilbourne was serving in the rifle Brigade
when he died in 1916 in The Somme
Lewis Reeve almost lost his life on the Somme
too, indeed, his death was prematurely reported in the local newspaper.
His brothers John (Jack) and Jesse,
and cousin William Reeve also served. William spent some time as a PoW.
Gerald Gilbourne died in Southampton
Dan Gilbourne is the only person in these pages
who is known to have lost his life in the Royal Navy. He was one of 518
killed off the coast of Brittany on HMS Charybdis in 1943.
Gerald, Walter and Dan Gilbourne are all commemorated on the Brinsley War Memorial
Edward Santer was a private in the Machine Gun corps when he was killed in France in 1918, and William Aubrey Santer was serving in the Royal Sussex Regiment when he died the same year.
Roy Gilbourne also served in the Royal Navy in WWII, while his namesake served in the RAF. The latter, an adopted son of Lyndon Gilbourne, was shot down over Burma and spent seven months in a Japanese PoW camp.
Thomas Bevan and Nancy Gilbourne met at RAF Cosford during the second war. Fortunately, both survived or I would not be here to write this. Some of their photographs and memorabilia from their service days are included here.
Footnote: There were undoubtedly many others from these pages who also served, in the World Wars, but we have no details.
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