Tebbs, Richard Henry
Title
Tebbs, Richard Henry
Last Name
Tebbs
First and Middle Name
Richard Henry (Junior)
Hometown
Leesburg
County and/or State
Loudoun County, Virginia
Birth Date
October 1886
Birthplace
Leesburg
Death Date
July 15, 1928
Cause of Death
Heart Failure
Place of Death
S.S. Cristobal; sailing from Port Au Prince, Haiti to New York (ship arrived in New York on July 16, 1928)
Parents
Richard Henry Tebbs Sr.
VPI Graduating Class
1907
Undergraduate Major
Engineering
Graduated
No. Graduated from University of Virginia in 1907. Transferred from VPI after Junior year
Service Branch
Marine Corps
Unit
N/a
Rank
Major
Retired Rank
Major
Postwar Life
Continued to serve in Marine Corps
Additional Notes
Brother William Lynch Tebbs graduated from VPI in 1909 with a degree in Civil Engineering
Bibliography
Times Dispatch, Volume 1905, Number 16747, 22 January 1905. Virginia Chronicle, Library of Virginia. Accessed December 16, 2017, virginiachronicle.com/cgi-bin/virginia?a=d&d=TD19050122.1.21&srpos=44&e=------190-en-20--41--txt-txIN-Richard+Tebbs------
Files
Collection
Citation
“Tebbs, Richard Henry,” VPI in World War I, accessed November 21, 2024, https://vpiworldwarone.lib.vt.edu/items/show/637.
Comments (if you have information about a veteran or would like to talk about a veteran, also email the project director Daniel Newcomb at danieln1@vt.edu with your information or question)
Joseph Francis Reich
CPT John Tebbs, who graduated from Virginia Tech in 1916, commanded a company in the 6th Marine Machine Gun Battalion tasked with providing suppressing fire for the assault on German strongholds in Belleau Wood. Tebbs and his Marines fought relentlessly and suffered heavy casualties to German machine guns and artillery fire. By June 26, Belleau Wood was cleared of the enemy. The total number of Marine casualties suffered here would eclipse all the casualties the Corps had sustained in its previous 143 year history. Tebbs survived the battle, fought again at Soissons and was gassed so badly at Mont Blanx Ridge in Octobrr that he did not recover until three months after the Armistice.