War Memorial
Gilbert Nixon was the second son of Charles and Elsie Nixon, and was born in Leigh in September 1917. The household held five daughters and two sons in all; in time the parents made their home in Tonbridge, Kent.
Work first took Gilbert outdoors as a gardener. The electoral registers had been suspended in 1938 for the duration of the war, so although he would have become eligible to vote in 1939, his name does not appear on the 1945 Service Register. Before enlisting he had also learned the bakehouse trade, joining the Phipps bakery as a baker.
Gilbert served as a Gunner with 4 H.A.A. Regiment, Royal Artillery, service number 1523772, and was posted to Malta. On the night of 22 April 1942 he was serving a heavy anti-aircraft gun when the position was bombed and several of the crew were killed. Gilbert, aged 24, was among the fallen — one of seven gunners out of the eleven service people who lost their lives in Malta that day. His own brother had been lost to the war only six months earlier.
He lies buried in Pieta Military Cemetery, Malta, and is remembered on Leigh War Memorial.