Source: Michael Doyle Their Name Liveth For Evermore: The Great War Roll of Honour for Leicestershire and Rutland.
He was the son of Robert and Betsy Ann Hibbins. After enlistment and training he first embarked for Ireland during the Rebellion, after which he embarked for France and took part in the third Battle of Ypres, he was wounded at Delville Wood, France on the 26th August 1917. On the 21st March 1918 he returned to his battalion after recovering, where they were holding a line of trenches near Heudicourt, a village north west of Epehy which lies on the railway between Cambrai and Peronne. This was in the centre of the great offensive that the German’s launched that morning on a fifty mile front, their objective being the capture of Amiens. The advance was in such overwhelming numbers that our front lines were outflanked and forced to retire. For a total of nine days the battalion continued to withdraw, fighting a continual rearguard action. The steadiness of the retirement and the fact that the German’s nowhere succeeded in breaking through the line were the main cause of his ultimate failure. The battalion made a stand at Sorel Wood south of Fins, and then retired in a south westerly direction passing between Clery and Peronne and on 30th March reached the village of Mericourt lying on the Somme south of Albert. The Colonel commanding the Battalion was killed on the afternoon of the 22nd March, and its casualties during this long retreat were heavy. As the enemy was constantly advancing and occupying the ground on which our men had fallen, the nature of many of our casualties could never be ascertained. Such is the record of the action, sent by the Red Cross to his parents, in which Private Hibbins was posted as missing. An eye witness said “On the night of the 21st March, we left our trenches and withdrew about eight kilometres to the rear, where we dug ourselves in. We stayed entrenched there all the morning under fire, and in the afternoon our Colonel was killed by a sniper. A few minutes afterwards the order was given to retire, and we left without bringing away his or other bodies.” Another eye witness stated, “On Saturday afternoon, 23rd March, south of Clery, the Germans attacked us. I was wounded and captured, and my pal was killed outright, while looking over the parapet. His body was, of course, left, as we were retiring.” As no further news came to hand up to February, 1920, it has to be assumed that he was killed during this final withdrawal.