Humphrey Arthur Gilkes

Humphrey Arthur Gilkes MC & Three Bars (13 October 1895 – 11 July 1945) was a British soldier and medical doctor. He is one of four soldiers to have been awarded the Military Cross four times, all in the First World War. He was a medical officer in the Colonial Medical Service between the wars. He also served in the British Army in the Second World War, and was killed in an aeroplane crash at Djibouti.

Humphrey Arthur Gilkes
Born(1895-10-13)13 October 1895
London, England
Died11 July 1945(1945-07-11) (aged 49)
Djibouti
Buried
Djibouti New European Cemetery
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
Years of service1914–1919
1923
1940–1945
RankLieutenant Colonel
Service number4006
Battles/warsFirst World War
Second World War
AwardsMilitary Cross & Three Bars

Early life

Gilkes was the second of four sons of Arthur Herman Gilkes. He was educated at Dulwich College, where his father was the Master from 1885 to 1914. He played football for the First XI in 1910, rugby for the Second XV, and also played the violin. His brother Christopher Herman Gilkes was Master of Dulwich College from 1941 to 1953.

First World War

Gilkes joined the Honourable Artillery Company as a private soldier after the outbreak of the First World War, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the London Regiment in September 1915, joining the 21st (County of London) Battalion (First Surrey Rifles).[1] He served with the 142nd (6th London) Brigade in the 47th (1/2nd London) Division through the First World War. He became a temporary lieutenant in July 1916.[2]

He was awarded the Military Cross (MC) on four occasions, for his actions as an intelligence officer between September 1917 and September 1918, on reconnaissance missions ahead of the British lines. He was awarded his first MC in September 1917.[3] He was wounded in early 1918, and awarded a first Bar in March 1918,[4] a second Bar in June 1918,[5] and a third Bar in January 1919 for actions at Moislains on 2 September 1918.[6] Two other officers received their third Bar in the same January 1919 edition of the London Gazette, Percy Bentley and Charles Gordon Timms, emulating Francis Wallington whose third Bar was gazetted on 13 September 1918.

Later life

Gilkes read medicine at Christ Church, Oxford from 1919, and then trained at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London, qualifying as a doctor in 1922 and serving briefly as a lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps from February to November 1923.[7] He resigned his regular army commission, but remained a lieutenant in the Territorial Army Reserve of Officers.[8] He joined the Colonial Medical Service, serving in Northern Rhodesia until 1936 and then in Trinidad until 1940. He was the author of two novels, Black (1935) and The Unclean Spirit (1937).

He rejoined the army in the Second World War, serving as a lieutenant colonel in the Royal Army Medical Corps in Uganda until 1943 and then in British Somaliland.

About to return home on leave, he was one of seven servicemen killed in an aeroplane crash at Djibouti, and buried in a collective grave at the New European Cemetery, Djibouti.

References
  1. The London Gazette, 10 September 1915, Issue 29293, Page 9080
  2. The London Gazette, 9 January 1917, Issue 29899, Page 482
  3. The London Gazette, 14 September 1917, Issue 30287, Page 9570
  4. The London Gazette, 1 March 1918, Issue 30555, Page 2728
  5. The London Gazette, 21 June 1918, Issue 30761, Page 7396 (citation published in August: The London Gazette, 13 August 1918, Issue 30845, Page 9562)
  6. The London Gazette, 31 January 1919, Issue 31158, Page 1617
  7. The London Gazette, 20 February 1923, Issue 32797, Page 1230 and The London Gazette, 13 November 1923, Issue 32879, Page 7764
  8. The London Gazette, 20 March 1936, Issue 34266, Page 1820
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