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In memory of:

Flying Officer William Robert Gibbs

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Military service

Service number: J/27239
Age: 21
Rank: Flying Officer
Force: Air Force
Unit/Regiment: Royal Canadian Air Force
Division: 440 Sqdn.
Death: February 28, 1945

Burial/memorial information

RUNNYMEDE MEMORIAL
Grave reference: Panel 279.
Additional information
Son of Sidney and Ethel Gibbs, of Peterborough, Ontario.

Related media

Second World War (1939 – 1945)

In the Books of Remembrance

Commemorated on:

Page 518 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance.
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RUNNYMEDE MEMORIAL Surrey, United Kingdom

During the Second World War more than 116,000 men and women of the Air Forces of the British Commonwealth gave their lives in service. More than 17,000 of these were members of the Royal Canadian Air Force, or Canadians serving with the Royal Air Force. Approximately one-third of all who died have no known grave. Of these, 20,450 are commemorated by name on the Runnymede Memorial, which is situated at Englefield Green, near Egham, 32 kilometers by road west of London.

The design of the Runnymede Memorial is original and striking. On the crest of Cooper's Hill, overlooking the Thames, a square tower dominates a cloister, in the centre of which rests the Stone of Remembrance. The cloistered walks terminate in two lookouts, one facing towards Windsor, and the other towards London Airport at Heathrow. The names of the dead are inscribed on the stone reveals of the narrow windows in the cloisters and the lookouts. They include those of 3,050 Canadian airmen. Above the three-arched entrance to the cloister is a great stone eagle with the Royal Air Force motto, Per Ardua ad Astra". On each side is the inscription:

IN THIS CLOISTER ARE RECORDED THE NAMES OF TWENTY THOUSAND AIRMEN WHO HAVE NO KNOWN GRAVE. THEY DIED FOR FREEDOM IN RAID AND SORTIE OVER THE BRITISH ISLES AND THE LANDS AND SEAS OF NORTHERN AND WESTERN EUROPE

In the tower a vaulted shrine, which provides a quiet place for contemplation, contains illuminated verses by Paul H. Scott."

For more information, visit Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

 

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