Robert Howard Gamble (1893-1918), 2nd Lieut. 11th Infantry U.S. Fifth Division (posthumous portrait)

Oil on canvas 24.5" x 46.5" Artist: Ralph Ludwig Boyer (1879-1952), active in portraiture, illustration and landscapes; associated with the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Collection of the author.

On the frame and on the canvas is handwriting in pencil by Eleanor Gamble James, the subject's younger sister. At the top center of the frame she wrote: "2nd Lieut. US Infantry Robert Howard Gamble/ son of Robert Grattan Gamble and Francis Eaton White Gamble/ 1893-1918." On the back of the canvas, upper left corner she wrote: "painted by Ralph Boyer," and in the upper center right: "Robert Howard Gamble/ Born Bryn Mawr Pa. Jan 17 1893/ Killed in action Sept. 12, 1918/ St Mihiel France/ BA Yale 1915/ son of Robert Grattan Gamble/ Francis Eaton White Gamble."

He was sixth in a line of successive generations bearing the name Robert Gamble. His father, Robert Grattan Gamble (#5) was a physician; his grandfather Robert Howard Gamble (1815-1887) (#4) was Captain of Gamble's Artillery during the Civil War and Comptroller of Florida during Reconstruction, who is said to have held off Yankee looters at pistol-point to save Florida's bearer bonds. His great-grandfather Robert Gamble (#3) was a Virginia planter who fought in the War of 1812, and subsequently moved from Virginia to Florida and built the Welaunee plantation. His great-great grandfather Captain Robert Gamble (#2) was among the leaders of the "Forlorn Hope" which stormed Stony Point on the Hudson during the American Revolution. The first Robert Gamble in America was a farmer who came from Londonderry Ireland in 1735 and settled in Augusta County, Virginia.

On his mothers' side, Lt. Gamble was directly descended from Miles Standish, and from the only man who signed all four of the supreme papers of American independence: The Articles of Association of Congress of 1774, the Articles of Confederation, The Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution--Roger Sherman.

Further information about the Gamble family of England and Ireland is available at http://www.mizar.freeserve.co.uk/gamble/