The First World War - Frederic Gibbs Collection
This collection of photographs were taken or collected by
Frederick Gerald Gibbs (1888 - 1940). Gibbs was a
professional photographer with a business at Regent House, High
Street, Annan, he was conscripted in 1916 aged 28 and sent to the
Western Front where he served as a sapper in the Royal Engineers.
In a letter home written on Armistice Day, 11 November 1918, he
describes to his wife Mabel and young son Oswald, a knee injury for
which he was invalided out of the army, returning to his family and
business in 1919.
Not long before he died, Fred gave to his daughter Sybil, also a
professional photographer, seventy-two photographic prints which
her nephew Alan Gibbs subsequently donated to Annan Museum. They
show aspects of life on the Western Front, including moments of
leisure, the impact of war on civilians and the realities of war.
Each has been carefully composed and expertly developed from glass
plate negatives. The amount of detail recorded in each image is
significant, providing us today with important historical insights.
Fred, with his trained photographer's eye, and perhaps also his
commercial mind, brought home images which were dynamic and told
powerful stories.
Recent research has revealed that photographs of soldiers on the
Western Front, held in The Gibbs Collection at Annan Museum, were
originally taken as official Canadian army press photographs. They
were probably licensed for printing to Annan photographer Frederick
Gibbs. Some of the original photographs have survived and are held
in the Canadian War Museum collection, Ottawa.
