John Gibson was born on 19 April 1893 in Islington, the 3rd son and 4th of the seven children of William James Gibson (1862-1930) and Katherine Gibson née Hilton (1859-1923).
On 3 September 1893 he was baptised at St Paul's Church, Clerkenwell. The baptismal register shows the family living at 12, N Block, Peabody Buildings, Roscoe Street, Islington and that his father was a stove fitter.
In the 1901 census he is shown living with his parents and five siblings at 10 Guest Street, Finsbury and in the 1911 census he is recorded as an assistant salesman at a velveteen warehouse, residing at 38 Taplow Street, Hoxton with his parents, his maternal grandmother and five siblings.
He enlisted as a Private in the 2nd/4th (City of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) at their Shaftesbury Street, Shoreditch, recruitment offices and his service number was 1040. He first entered France on 6 January 1915 and remained there until 6 December 1915 when he returned to England and was promoted to Corporal. His second spell with the British Expeditionary Force was from 21 October 1916 until 9 April 1917 during which time his service number was changed to 280047. He returned to France and Flanders on 23 July 1917 until he was killed in action, aged 25 years, on 19 September 1917.
As he has no known grave, he is commemorated on Panel 52, Stone F, on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, in Ieper, Belgium.
In the UK Army Register of Soldiers Effects his rank is listed as a Private. This register confirms that his mother was sent his army effects totalling £16-7s-1d on 15 December 1917 and his £14-0s-0d war gratuity on 29 December 1919.
He was posthumously awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal, but confusingly, on both his UK British Army World War I Medal Rolls Index Card and on the Service Medal and Award Rolls his rank is recorded as a Corporal and this is how his three medals would have been engraved.
He is also commemorated in the London Borough of Islington's Book of Remembrance.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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