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Big-hearted Bill - a casualty of war

Although many Salvation Army personnel chaplains and Red Shield workers returned from war sick or injured, one never returned.
Bill Tibbs

Bill Tibbs

It was said of the Red Shield officers that they were in the right place at the right time, every time. However, one of them – Bill Tibbs – was in the wrong place at one time and lost his life as a result. In so doing he became the only Red Shield worker to be killed on active service, although many others returned ill and injured.

Bill Tibbs grew up in Armidale and in 1930, at 19, he became a Salvation Army officer. When war came he was serving at Newcastle with his wife Norah. Leaving Norah and their two young children, he boarded the HMAT Aquitania with the 9^th Division to the Middle East.

War service

Big-hearted Bill was in Tobruk for the siege. In a letter to his wife, he referred to the help he was able to give, often in simple but very welcome ways such as giving the men PKs (chewing gum). Didn’t the men just appreciate them! They help to keep their tongues moist.

Later in the same letter, he writes:

You will be pleased to hear that in the eight days we have been in these parts we have served to the boys 256 gallons of hot coffee and 17 gallons of tea with biscuits, 2,500 packets of PKs and comforts, including soap, shaving soap, face washers, toothpaste and brushes, mirrors and sewing kits, underpants and talc powder. The good name of the Army soars high as a result of it, but I pray that the name of our God will be honoured by it too. I am very jealous for His name and cause, especially as I see so few who care at all.

Papua New Guinea

After his Middle East service he spent some time in Papua New Guinea. In December 1943, he was recalled by The Salvation Army to take charge of a corps in central Sydney (Sydney Congress Hall). Obeying orders like a good soldier, he travelled to Sydney via stops at Townsville and Brisbane.

Plane crash

At the first stop, he was given permission to travel into town to pick up the uniform he now needed again. On his return, he found that the plane had left without him and he had to wait for another. On 19 December 1943, his plane ran into difficulties and crashed – killing all 31 on board. Bill Tibbs is buried in the Rockhampton War Cemetery, Plot A, Row B, Grave 3.

Let his obituary be told simply in the words of his mate, Albert Moore: I had the greatest admiration for his qualities as a man, soldier and friend, and last but not least, as a Christian.

THE SALVO COFFEE MAN

There’s a bloke who’s not a soldier – yet he’s with us in a fight,
There’s no hero ever bolder or man as cheery and as bright;
To us he’s always welcome, with his truck or panel van.
He’s a fellow we call “Tibbsy”, the “Salvo Coffee Man”.

His cry of “Come and get it, or I’ll give it to the Hun”
Always brought us Diggers a-coming on the run;
He’d give us a mug of coffee, a biscuit or a cake,
And tell us all the latest news by the shores of “Musso’s Lake”.

When we came back from the desert to the land of mountains high,
Where good old “Shanks’ Pony” we could only travel by,
He would bring his coffee to us on a mule and in a can,
For nothing ever beat that bloke, the “Salvo Coffee Man”.

In camps he had a hut or tent, with “Welcome” on a sign;
There were always pen and paper for a man to drop a line.
A gramophone and wireless and books from every land.
For these things, too, we thank a bloke – the “Salvo Coffee Man”.

When this war is over and its memory only dim,
When we’re old and gouty and our hair is mighty thin,
Through those years of peace and comfort near the end of our life’s span,
There’s one bloke we’ll all remember – “Tibbsy”, the “Salvo Coffee Man”.

(Written by an unknown soldier identified as NX6490)

Photo courtesy of Australian War Memorial - Negative Number P05003