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. [1] This caused an outcry and the government subsequently held an official inquiry.[3][4] At the inquiry, held on 14 July that year, Gibbs' father testified that Gibbs, who was characterised as being stubborn[5] had refused to go to school that day and said he would rather hang himself. The school nurse, Mary Perrin, also testified at the inquiry that she had found Gibbs dead in the school infirmary at 11:40 AM. 15-year-old Herbert Arthur Copeland, the student to whom Gibbs was made a fag, said that Gibbs was "not a good boy", and that he was "quarrelsome and determined". However, Copeland also admitted to corporally punishing Gibbs to the point he cried, despite not being allowed to do so, saying he did it because Gibbs "told untruths". The school warden, one Major Brackenbury, denied that Gibbs had ever made a complaint to him. The jury at the inquiry returned a verdict finding that Gibbs had died as a result of "suicide whilst in a state of temporary insanity".[6]
References
edit- ^ a b "Notes of the Month". The Poor Law Magazine and Parochial Journal. 5 (1). James Turner & Company: 415. 1877. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
- ^ "Parliamentary Papers, Volume 26", Great Britain Parliament. House of Commons, H.M. Stationery Office, 1877, pages 1-2.
- ^ Lionel Rose (2002), The Erosion of Childhood: Childhood in Britain 1860-1918, Routledge, ISBN 9780203221402
- ^ George A. T. Allan, Jack Eric Morpurgo (1984), Christ's Hospital, Town & County, p. 70, ISBN 9780863640056,
The immediate cause was the suicide, on 4th May 1877 of a 12 years old Blue. William Gibbs. The outcry that followed forced the Home Secretary to set up a Commission of Inquiry ...
- ^ "Parliamentary Papers, Volume 26", Great Britain Parliament. House of Commons, H.M. Stationery Office, 1877, pages 1-2.
- ^ "SUICIDE OF A BLUECOAT BOY". Evening Post. 18 September 1877. Vol XV Issue 219. Retrieved 25 May 2024 – via paperspast.natlib.govt.nz.
External links
edit- "SUICIDE OF A BLUECOAT BOY". Evening Post. 18 September 1877. Vol XV Issue 219. Retrieved 16 September 2018 – via paperspast.natlib.govt.nz.
- "THE REPORT ON CHRIST'S HOSPITAL". The Spectator Archive. 18 August 1877. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
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