Suicide of William Arthur Gibbs
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

William Arthur Gibbs (1865 – 4 May 1877) was the son of a glass-painter from Kingsland Road and a schoolboy at Christ's Hospital school in
Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
, 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. 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. This caused an outcry and the government subsequently held an official inquiry. At the inquiry, held on 14 July that year, Gibbs' father testified that Gibbs, who was characterised as being stubborn 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".


References


External links

* * 1865 births 1877 deaths 1870s suicides Bullying and suicide Youth suicides Christ's Hospital Deaths by person in England Suicides by hanging in England Violence against men in the United Kingdom {{England-bio-stub