Gerald Edgar Gidley 1898 - 1918

Gerald Edgar Gidley was a Private in the Devonshire Regiment (2nd Battalion, 11th Foot). He died in No. 5 General Hospital in Rouen on April 30, 1918 at the age of 19 and was one of the youngest Gidleys to die.
Gerald Edgar was born on December 16, 1898. He was the only son of John Gidley and Eliza nee Turpin. John Gidley was born in Dartington, Devon, 1846 and married late in life, following a career in the Royal Marines Artillery. John had had a bad start in life - he was illegitimate and was living in Totnes Workhouse, a pauper, with his mother and brother in 1851. But after a spell living with his mother and stepfather he served with the Marines, then in 1911 was a grocer's van driver in Newton Abbot, Devon. He died in 1911, just after the census was taken, so was spared the sorrow of his only son's death. John and Eliza also had a daughter, Edith. They are part of the Dean Prior branch of the Gidleys.
Gerald was still at school in 1911. He enlisted in the army in April 1917 and we learn a lot about him from De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour. This was a series of volumes containing biographies of over 26,000 casualties of the Great War. Families had to pay for an entry to be included. Before he joined the army Gerald was a grocer's apprentice and a keen Scout, being Scoutmaster of the 2nd Highweek Troop. He arrived at the front on April 1, 1918 where he was a Lewis gunner. He died only four weeks later of wounds received at the Battle of Amiens. This must have been the last push of the great German offensive in the spring of 1918, when a final effort was aimed at the town of Amiens, a vital railway junction. (The main Battle of Amiens is generally considered to have begun four months later in August 1918.) It seems that the Germans were attacking heavily and Gerald was apparently "firing his gun well when he was seen to fall". He was taken to a hospital in Rouen where he died. He is buried in the St Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen.
He was awarded the Victory and British medals.