ROBERT GLADSTONE KIRBY

From May through to September 2026, Andrew will be fulfilling his dream to hike the iconic Land’s End to John O’Groats! You are all warmly invited to follow Andrew’s epic journey on his Facebook page, “Andrew Beal LEJOG” https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61577588795730

As Andrew hikes the 1,300+ miles, he will raise funds for the Ipswich War Memorial Project to help finance our future exhibitions and research of the brave Ipswich men and women who lost their lives in conflict. If you would like to make a small donation, please click on the link: https://gofund.me/5d4a50570

Thank you for your love and support. Andrew & Helen – I.W.M.P.

Image from the Suffolk Chronicle Mercury – 1917.

Images courtesy of Mr John Wainwright

Born: 1886, Felixstowe, Suffolk.

Died: 26th July 1917; age 30; KiA by shellfire when leading a group of 17 men near Bedford House.

The 17 men were returning with a working party early in the morning on the 26^th July; they stopped on the way to bury one of their comrades whom they found killed on the way back. They were all caught by a shell; six were killed instantly, and the rest were wounded.

Robert was about to take special leave with a view to being married at Ipswich.

The Battalion war diary states: “Lt.Colonel C. H. de St.P. Bunbury proceeded to Trenches to Command Battalion. At 5 p.m. the 2nd Bn.Yorkshire Regiment and 18th Bn. Manchester Regiment carried out a raid in front of this Sector with successful results. No. 8718 Cpl. F. Aveling, 2nd Bn. Bedfordshire Regiment, was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry in this raid. Casualties. 2nd Lieutenant G. Lenton wounded.

Residence: 33, Alan Road, Ipswich.

Occupation: for 12 years with Mr. H.W. Parker, a Printer, at Fore Street, Ipswich.

Enlistment Location: Ipswich. Joined the 2nd Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment in January 1910.

Robert was serving in South Africa at the outbreak of war, when he joined the British Expeditionary Force in France. He had seen three winters in the trenches.

Date of Entry Therein: 6th October 1914.

Wounded at Neuve Chapelle – March 1915.

Rank: Company Sergeant Major; Service Number: 9517

Regiment: Bedfordshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion.

Medals Awarded: Victory, British War & 1914 Star + Clasp + Military Medal.

Awarded the M.M. for gallantry, bravery and devotion to duty in the field at the Battle of the Somme in July 1916. Gazetted 16th November 1916.

Image from the 1916 Suffolk Chronicle and Mercury for his MM award.

The six men were buried in the evening of the 26th in the cemetery at Bedford House, near Ypres.

Robert’s body was buried in a collective grave with the bodies of Joseph Henry Creamer and Sidney John Hewitt.

Grave Reference:

Enclosure No.4 II. Cl.5.

Bedford House Cemetery,

West-Vlaanderen,

Belgium.

JOSEPH HENRY CREAMER, a Private, 201524, for the Bedfordshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion. Joseph, a farm labourer, was born in 1892, at Heath and Reach, Bedfordshire, the son of John Creamer, a horseman at the Sand Pits, of Mr. Harry J. Arnold – Sand Merchant, of Heath and Reach, and Alice Jane Creamer (nee Fleckney), of Hockliffe, Bedfordshire.

SIDNEY JOHN HEWITT, a Private, 29264, for the Bedfordshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion. Sidney, a junior estate clerk, was born in June 1894, at Gissing, Norfolk, the son of John James Hewitt, an estate farm bailiff, and Amelia Frances Hewitt (nee Le Grys), of Home Farm, Flixton, Suffolk. The Hewitt family also lost in the war Sidney’s 20 year old brother, Ernest Frederick Hewitt, of the Norfolk Regiment, who died of wounds on the 28th April 1917, and was buried at Kantara War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt.

Also killed by the same shell:

ERNEST ALBERT MARSHALL, a Private, 18674, for the Bedfordshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion. Ernest, a labourer for the Electric Light Dept., Bedford Borough Council, was born in 1876, at Eynesbury, Huntingdonshire, the son of the late William Marshall, a farmer and market gardener, and Jane Marshall (nee Howe), of 14, Howbury Street, Bedford. Ernest was the main breadwinner for his widowed mother.

ERNEST OLIVER TOMPKINS, a Private, 29628, for the Bedfordshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion. Ernest was born in 1871, Linslade, Buckinghamshire, the son of Thomas Tompkins, a farm bailiff, and Susan Tompkins (nee Halsey), of Watford, Hertfordshire. In March 1901, Ernest, a soldier at Knightsbridge Barracks, married Minnie Batsworth and made their home at Watford.

WILLIAM CLARK, a Private, 25328, for the Bedfordshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion. William was born in 1897, Caddington, Bedfordshire, the son of Simeon Clark, a farmer – employer, and Elizabeth Clark (nee Keen), of Summer Field House, Slip End, Bedfordshire.

Injured by the shell was Private 503774, Robert Richard (Dick) Inwards, of Church Farm, Hockliffe. In May 1919, Dick was awarded the Silver War Badge and discharged wounded. Dick died in September 1971.

Leighton Buzzard Observer and Linslade Gazette – Tuesday, 28^th August 1917 – HOCKLIFFE – CASUALTIES – Mr. and Mrs. John Creamer have been informed that their son, Private Henry Creamer, was killed during the recent fighting in France. While he was helping to bury a comrade, a shell burst among them and killed several men. Private Dick Inwards, of the Church Farm, was badly wounded at the same time. He was hurrying up to assist his comrades at the funeral and was caught by fragments. Though badly wounded, he escaped with his life. He is now in Netley Hospital, where his mother has been to see him.

Relatives Notified & Address: Son of Charles & Elizabeth Kirby, of 57, Alan Road, Ipswich.

Brother to FRANK KIRBY and CALEB KIRBY.

CENSUS

1891   3, Hamilton Cottages, Walton, Suffolk.

Robert was 5 years old and living with his parents & siblings.

Charles Kirby, 50, a Cab Driver, born Bredfield, Suffolk.

Elizabeth Ann Kirby (nee Jarmy), 35, born Leiston, Suffolk.

John Alexander Kirby, 14, born Leiston.

Edith Kirby, 12, born Leiston.

Caleb Kirby, 10, born Saxmundham, Suffolk.

May Kirby, 7, born Averham, Nottinghamshire.

Maude Kirby, 6, born Ipswich.

Randolph Kirby, 2, born Felixstowe, Suffolk.

Ernest Kirby, 2 weeks old, born Walton, Suffolk.

1901   33, Alan Road, Ipswich.

Robert was 14 years old and a General Errand Boy. He was living with his parents & siblings.

Charles, 60, a Cab Driver – Groom.

Elizabeth, 45.

Maud, 16.

Randolph, 12.

Ernest, 10.

Frank Kirby, 8, born Walton.

Reginald Kirby, 6, born Walton.

1911   Bermuda & Jamaica.

Robert was 24 years old, a Soldier ranked Private, of the 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment.

Robert’s father, Charles Kirby, died suddenly on the 24th July 1908, at his home, 33, Alan Road, Ipswich. Late of Hill Farm, Leiston and Felixtowe.

Robert was secretary for many years to the St. Clement’s Lads Institute and Football Club.

Soldiers’ Effects to Elizabeth A. Kirby – mother.

Robert is also remembered on the war memorial at St. Clement’s Congregational Church, Ipswich.

Robert is seated, far left, second row from the front.

Robert is standing far left, back row. 

The 2 Bedfordshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion photographs were taken on 9th May 1917.

Bedfordshire Regiment, 2nd Battalion:

CALEB, FRANK & ROBERT KIRBY

On the 1st December 2004, D.N.W. Auctions sold the Kirby Brothers’ medals.

Lot 1342

Date of Auction: 1st December 2004

Sold for £1,500

Estimate: £1,200 – £1,500

A very poignant family group:

A Great War M.M. group of four awarded to Company Sergeant-Major R. G. Kirby, Bedfordshire Regiment, who was killed in action on 26 July 1917

Military Medal, G.V.R. (9517 Sjt. R. G. Kirby, 2/Bedf. R.); 1914 Star, with clasp (9517 L. Cpl., Bedf. R.); British War and Victory Medals (9517 W.O. Cl. 2, Bedf. R.), with original campaign award card forwarding boxes, extremely fine

Three: Acting Sergeant F. Kirby, Royal Artillery, who died of wounds on 8 August 1917

1914-15 Star (36083 Gnr., R.G.A.); British War and Victory Medals (36083 A. Sjt., R.A.), with original campaign award card forwarding boxes, extremely fine

Four: Private C. Kirby, Royal Marine Light Infantry, who was killed in action while serving in the 1st Royal Marine Battalion, R.N.D., on 26 October 1917

1914-15 Star (PLY. 10040 Pte., R.M.L.I.); British War and Victory Medals (PLY. 10040 Pte., R.M.L.I.); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 1st issue (PLY. 10040 Private, R.M.L.I.), with original campaign award card forwarding boxes, extremely fine

Four: Major R. Kirby, Bedfordshire Home Guard, late Suffolk Regiment

1914-15 Star (2458 Pte., Suff. R.); British War and Victory Medals (2458 Sjt., Suff. R.); Defence Medal 1939-45, privately engraved ‘Major R. Kirby, 6th Bedfs. H.G.’, mounted as worn, one or two edge bruises but otherwise good very fine (15)
£1200-1500

Footnote

In The Suffolk Chronicle & Mercury of 14 January 1916, a special feature was published to mark the extraordinary case of the Kirby brothers, no less than seven of whom were serving with the Colours at that time. Their story had come to the attention of King George V in the previous year, and, via the offices of the Keeper of the Privy Purse, their mother, Mrs. Elizabeth A. Kirby of No. 33 (previously No. 57) Alan Road, Ipswich, received a letter in December 1915, in which the King’s gratitude for her family’s shining example of patriotism, loyalty and ‘devotion to the Empire’ was duly acknowledged. Inevitably, this example was not without cost, and within a shockingly short period of time in 1917 – just 12 weeks – three of them died as a result of enemy action.

Robert Gladstone Kirby was employed out in South Africa prior to the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, but returned home in time to enlist in the Bedfordshire Regiment and join the B.E.F. out in France by early October 1914. A member of the 2nd Battalion, he was wounded at Neuve Chapelle in March 1915, but later rejoined his unit and was awarded the M.M., almost certainly as a result of bravery on the Somme in July 1916 (London Gazette 16 November 1916). Robert was killed in action on 26 July 1917, when his party, en route to Chateau Segard, was knocked out by a shell near “Bedford House”. He was 30 years of age and was interred in the Bedford House Cemetery.

Frank Kirby had witnessed active service in the Dardanelles prior to his death from wounds on 8 August 1917, while serving in France with the 90th Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery. He was interred in the Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension (Nord).

Caleb Kirby was born at Saxmundham, Ipswich, Suffolk in February 1881, and entered the Royal Marines in November 1899. Posted to the Plymouth Division, he had a number of seagoing appointments in the period leading up to the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, but none of them of an active service nature, and he was awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in July 1915, by which stage he was serving in the Royal Naval Division. Caleb was killed in action on 26 October 1917, while serving in the 1st R.M. Battalion of the R.N.D., and was interred in the Ancre British Cemetery at Beaumont-Hamel. He was 36 years of age.

Reginald Kirby served as a Sergeant in the 4th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment during the Great War and was commissioned into the Home Guard in the 1939-45 War.