Petty Officer 1st Class John Thomas Gilbert was born in Exmouth in December 1857 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class aboard H.M.S. Implacable in January 1873. Gaining steady advancement over the next decade, he was appointed a Petty Officer 1st Class in March 1883 and joined H.M.S. Acorn in February 1887. Subsequently engaged ashore in Africa, he became one of just 38 Naval recipients of the East and West Africa Medal with '1887-8' clasp, 15 of which went to men from the Acorn who accompanied Colonel Sir Francis Walker de Winton's Expedition to the hinterland of Sierra Leone to punish the wayward Yonnies. Frequently the target of the enemy's muzzle loaders - which fired rough bits of iron and small shot - the Expedition sustained 20 casualties. Interestingly, the C.O. of Acorn's Detachment, Lieutenant F.A. Valentine, R.N., was awarded the D.S.O. Gilbert left the Service in the 1890s and was latterly an R.F.R. man until finally discharged in late 1907.