Private (Bugler) Gabriel HICKS (c.1871–1898)

Gabriel Hicks was born in Great Rissington, Gloucestershire and baptised there on 4 March 1871. He was the son of the labourer Thomas Hicks and Martha Preston, who were married at Great Rissington on 1 October 1864.

Gabriel had eleven siblings, of whom three died in infancy:

• Elizabeth Hicks (born 1865), William Harrison Hicks (born 1866), John Hicks (born 1867), Alice Hicks (born 1869),
  Rose Hicks (born and died 1873), Emily Hicks (born 1875), Benjamin Hicks (born 1876), Alfred Hicks (born and died 1879),
  Raymond Hicks (born 1880), George Hicks (born and died 1882), and Miriam Hicks (born 1885)

At the time of the 1871 census Gabriel (three months) was living with his parents Thomas (32) and Martha (26) and his four older siblings in Great Rissington at the home of his grandfather William Preston, a widower aged 67 who worked as a blacksmith.

By the time of the 1881 census Gabriel (10) was living with his parents and five of his siblings in Great Rissington: his father was now described as a shepherd, and his brother John (13) was already working as an agricultural labourer.

On 28 September 1890 when he was aged 19 Gabriel enlisted the Oxfordshire Light Infantry and served in India in 1895. On 14 May 1898 he was allowed to extend his service to complete twelve years.

He is listed as a Private on the memorial, but his army records state that was a bugler in A Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Oxfordshire Light Infantry (regimental number 3453). He served both on the Punjab Frontier and at Tirah in 1897/8.

He died of disease at Landi Kotal at the age of 27 on 22 July 1898: see his grave

He was posthumously awarded the India Medal with two clasps.

His father Thomas Hicks died in Great Rissington in 1908, and his mother Martha Hicks in Witney in 1930.