St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1916-06-21
WOUNDED AT
FRENCH FRONT
Norman H. Gibbon, a St. Johnsbury
Boy, In Hospital at Camiers-Ex-
tent OF Injuries are Not Known
Here
ENLISTED In CANADA
Was Young Man of Adventurous Ma
ture and Possessed With Desire to
See World-Left Home of Mother
at 40 Caledonia Street for
Northwest Six Years Ago.

Word has been received from the
battle front in France of the wound
ing of Norman H. Gibbons, son of
Norman H. Gibbons. of 40 Caledonia
street.
Mr.. Gibbons is st. Johnsbury boy,
having lived in town from boyhood to
about six years ago, when he went to
the Canadian northwest, locating in
the city of Edmonton, Province of AL
berta, where he enlisted January 4,
1915, with the 49th Battalion of the
Canadian contingent.
A telegram was received last week
by Mrs. Gibbons from the war office
at Ottawa to the effect that Private
Norman H Gibbons was wounded in
the trenches at the front in France and
was in general hospital No. 4, Cam
iers, France. Efforts to reach the hos
pital by cable have been futile so the
seriousness of his wounds are not
known.
The story as told a Caledonian re-
porter by his mother shows that Mr..
IGibbons was young man always look
| ing for adventure and having a desire
to see the world for himself, for after
reading the books, BLACK Rock" and
1.-The Sky Pilot" by DR.. Gordon, or
Ralph Connors as known by his book
name, he was very anxious to see the
great northwest of Canada of which
he had heard and read so much about.
With his brother as a companion he
| left ST. Johnsbury, sometimes rough
ing and sometimes not. He worked
in the harvest fields of Manitoba and
Saskatchewan, roughed it in the great
logging camps of British Columbia,
railroaded on the Grand Trunk Pacific
| in construction work through the
famous Yellow Head pass, and finally
firing of these adventures he bought
out an interest in a large general mer-
chandise business in Edmonton, city
of 1000. Soon after the declaration
of war he, with three other young
men was chosen by the Northwestern
Mounted police to watch a colony of
German and Austrian colonists 100
miles northwest of Edmonton. This
colony of foreigners were very pros
porous and had fine farms along the
Grand Trunk Pacific.
They acted as guards over two mas
sive bridges, LOO and $50 feet re-
spectively, in length, two grain eleva-
tors filled with wheat destined for
England, and five miles of trail. On
1872 ne ISlu1ASd " L1A-
monitor and enlisted in the 49th bat
talon and was started for the front
the last week in May, arriving in
Shorne Cliff, County Kent, after a
three weeks trip. October his COM
pany was ordered to the front at
France, where Mr.. Gibbons was plac- |
ed on duty with the engineers of the |
Canadian contingent doing duty at
Ypres but escaping injury.
The only mention made of his life |
at the front in his letters home were |
1.-THE allies will win with hands
down and will never give in until Ger
many is beaten to her knees" and
again he said, the Germans are she'll
ing us all the time now, and they (the
Germans) come over once in while
but they never go back. Tt is said of
the battalion that the forty-niners are
always at the front"
The last news heard was the tele-
gram stating that he had been
wounded in the trenches and was in
the hospital at Camiers.