Category: Military
Rank: Major
Regiment or Ship: 104th Battalion Wellesleys Rifles Indian Army
Date of Birth: 1869
Date of Death: 22.11.1915
Place of Death: Ctesiphon, Mesopotamia
Address: 29 Sutherland Avenue, Bexhill on Sea
Photos and newspaper articles
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Family Information
Father: Major-General Stafford Bailey.
Gilbert married Constance Elizabeth Clissold in 1903 in Warwick. They had two children.
First World War Experience
The only firm knowledge we have of Gilbert’s part in WW1 is from an article in a local newspaper – the researcher thinks that the family were lodging in Sutherland Avenue at the time the article was written – 4th December 1915.
“The Late Major Bailey.
With regard to the late Major Gilbert Bailey, of 29, Sutherland Avenue, the following additional information was given in yesterday’s “Times” – ‘Major Gilbert Bailey, second in command of 104th Wellesley’s Rifles, who was killed in Mesopotamia between 22nd and 24th, was the eldest son of the late Major-General Stafford Bailey, Madras Staff Corps. He was born in 1869, educated at Bedford and Sandhurst, and was gazetted to the Middlesex Regiment in 1890, serving with them in Ireland and India. In 1893 he transferred to the Indian Army and joined the 4th Bombay Rifles (afterwards 1104th Rifles), with which Regiment he was serving at the time of his death. He was Recruiting Officer in Rajputana in 1908 and later on was appointed to the Staff of the Adjutant General at Army Headquarters, Simla. He had served throughout the operations in Mesopotamia, and was wounded in November of last year. He married in 1903 Constance, daughter of the late Rev. Bayley Clissold, and leaves a widow and two children.’
The following details are from Gilbert’s probate records:-
“BAILEY Gilbert 104th Rifles Indian Army died 22 November 1915 at Ctesiphon in Mesopotamia. Administration London 12 May to Constance Elizabeth Bailey, widow. Effects £333-6s-8d.”