Source: Michael Doyle Their Name Liveth For Evermore: The Great War Roll of Honour for Leicestershire and Rutland.
He was the son of Harry Herbert Gibbs, born 26th March 1861 in Whitwick, Leicestershire and his wife Harriett Gibbs, (nee Wood, formerly Cooper, married on the 11th December 1888 in the Parish Church, Shepshed), born 1855 in Shepshed, Leicestershire. William Henry Herbert was born 24th June 1896 in Shepshed and was baptised on the 2nd August 1896 in the Parish Church, Shepshed. In March 1901 William was residing in the family home at Leicester Road, Shepshed, together with his mother and siblings, Doris Elaine, born 9th July 1890 and Philip Eric Wood, born 14th September 1897, both his siblings were born in Shepshed, also residing in the family home was William’s widowed maternal Grandmother, Harriett Wood, born 1828 in Loughborough, Leicestershire. In April 1911 William was a schoolboy and was residing in the family home at Leicester Road, Shepshed, together with his father, a retired builder’s merchant, his mother and siblings, Doris and Philip, a schoolboy. William also had an older sibling, Ethel May, born 1889 in Shepshed, who died in January 1894 in Shepshed, age 3
William’s mother Harriett Wood married Charles Alfred Cooper, a surgeon, born 1851 in Jamaica, on the 10th July 1880 in the Parish Church, Shepshed, from this union they had the following children, William Saunderson Cooper, born in the 2nd quarter of 1881, Charles Alfred Cooper, born in the 3rd quarter of 1882, James Askey Cooper, born in the 4th quarter of 1883 and Frank Adams Cooper, born in the 1st quarter of 1885, all the children were born in Ilkeston, Derbyshire. Harriett’s husband Charles died in the 4th quarter of 1884 in Ilkeston, Derbyshire age 33.
William’s mother died on the 29th February 1932 in Shepshed age 77 and his father died on the 8th March 1949 in Shepshed, age 87.
William’s Army enlistment documents were not researched, and as such all that is known of his military service is that he was commissioned into the Army Service Corps, and was posted as a 2nd Lieutenant to the 329th Siege Battery, Ammunition Column, first entering the theatre of war in France on the 13th May 1917. He was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry together with the British War Medal and Victory Medal.