Bertie Stibbard
From The Orange Wiki
STIBBARD, Bertie
Service no: 1981 [1]
Place of birth: Orange, 1895
Address: Cadia, via Orange
Occupation: Labourer
Next of kin: Frances Stibbard (mother), Cadia, via Orange
Date of enlistment: 24 February 1916
Place of enlistment: Orange
Age at enlistment: 20
Fate: Embarked SS Barambah Sydney 23 June 1916. Disembarked Plymouth 25 August 1916. Appointed Lance Corporal 7 February 1917. Appointed Temporary Colonel 27 May 1917. Killed in action, Messines, Belgium.
Date of death: 7 June 1917
Buried: Messines Ridge British Cemetery, Belgium, Plot I, Row F, Grave No. 23
Bert Stibbard was a labourer from Cadia who enlisted in Orange in February 1916. He arrived in England in August the same year and proceeded to France as a private in the 34th Battalion. In February 1917 he was appointed Lance Corporal.
According to an eyewitness report Stibbard was killed by a shell explosion whilst sleeping in a bay in the trenches at Ploegsteert, Belgium on the morning of 7 June 1917. He was 22.
Bertie’s name appears on the Holy Trinity Church Orange Honour Roll.
In 1923 the Anzac Memorial Avenue of trees was planted along Bathurst Road to commemorate fallen WWI soldiers. A tree was planted in honour of “Cpl Bert Stibbard”; it was donated by his mother, Frances. Very few of the trees are still standing today.
Leader, 3 August 1917, p.6.
The Late Corporal Bert Stibbard [2]