Suicide of William Arthur Gibbs

William Arthur Gibbs (1865 – 4 May 1877) was the son of a glass-painter from Kingsland Road[1] and a schoolboy at Christ's Hospital school in Sussex, England, who came to public attention after committing suicide by hanging on 4 May 1877 at age 12 out of fear of repeated punishments, including flogging, for having run away from the school to his family home.[2] Gibbs had complained to his sister and his father that he was made a fag at school, that an older student had held his head underwater while he was bathing and that he would rather hang himself than be made a fag to that older student again. Both an older student and a teacher had admitted to corporally punishing Gibbs.[1] This caused an outcry and the government subsequently held an official inquiry.[3][4]