WEBB, Cappur Mitchell (1896-1917)Cappur Mitchell Webb was born on 13 August 1896 at Roto Station, Hillston, New South Wales, the son of Richard Cappur Webb and Alice Martha Ann nee Scott, of Clendoxey, Seymour. He was enrolled as a boarder at Geelong College in February 1910 remaining at College until December 1915. His enrolment record indicated that previously he had been taught by a governess. He was a rower in the 1st Rowing Crews of 1914 and 1915 as well as being a School Prefect in 1915. He went to Ormond College to study Medicine in 1916. While there he became a Lieutenant in the Melbourne University Rifles, but enlisted (No. 32252) in the AIF on 13 August 1916 as a Gunner with 4 Field Artillery Brigade.
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C M Webb (War Service).
He embarked for France on
RMS Osterley on 14 February 1917 with the 24th Reinforcement Group, and reached England on 11 May 1917, proceeding to France in July, where he served as a Gunner with 8th Field Artillery Brigade. He was killed, aged 21, near Zillebeke during the night of 19 September 1917, by a shell bursting in front of a dugout.
Gunner Alfred Blackford Malcolm (of Taree, NSW), from his battery, told of the circumstances of his death:
‘He was a new man. I only knew him slightly. On the 19th September we were at Zillebeke. Four men were making gun pits in front of the Battery previous to our attack. Gunner Finch, a pal of mine, told me he saw Webb killed by a piece of shell, and he helped to carry him down to the Dressing Station which was about 200 yards off. He told me he died at the Dressing Station. There was a military cemetery near there. I saw a cross with his name taken up to the cemetery.’ Pegasus of December 1917 carried a report of his death:
‘On September 19th he and some others were sent to prepare some positions for their guns; while he and six others were asleep in their dug-out, a shell landed in the middle of it; a splinter pierced his breast, and he died soon after at the dressing station. Angus Waugh, who at the same time was wounded in the back and arms, went with him, and did not leave him till he died.’ The AWM Collection includes material relating to Gunner Cappur Webb, including correspondence to Webb’s parents from the Red Cross and other soldiers confirming his death in action and describing the events that lead to his death, as well as correspondence regarding the location of Webb’s grave, his identity discs, with the following details handwritten on both sides of the disc: '32252 CM WEBB 29TH Bty 8 FAB PRES', and a portrait of him.
Sources: Based on an edited extract from Geelong Collegians at the Great War compiled by James Affleck. p117 (citing The University of Melbourne: Record of Active Service of Teachers, Graduates, Undergraduates, Officers and Servants (1926); Commonwealth War Graves Commission; Photo Pegasus December 1917; AWM H05762; REL31352.)