I've written before about the British football coach Victor Gibson, who was highly influential and successful in France in the 1920s, leading Olympique de Marseille to two French Cup victories. 
   However, his identity and origins have proved frustratingly elusive - until now. I have established that he used a false first name throughout his football career, and can finally fill in the gaps in his life story. I can also confirm that he was not Scottish, having been born and brought up in Woolwich.

As Victor Gibson himself does not appear in any UK records or censuses, it suggested that his real name was something different. But what? Along with other researchers I tried all sorts of alternatives without success. But then I focussed on an Arthur Henry Gibson, born in Woolwich in 1888. Finally, the pieces fitted together.
   ​There had been an important clue to Gibson's identity in the French press after he left the country in the mid 1930s. He was reported to be working back in England a 'jardinier', ie a gardener or groundsman. This tallied with the cutting below, which described how Gibson had gone from Woolwich to Barcelona as a professional footballer in 1911 - the exact year that 'Victor' Gibson had gone there on tour with Plumstead, and stayed on to play for Espanyol. And what is more, he is now working as a groundsman.

There are still some gaps in the Victor Gibson story, not least why he never used his own name for football. Reports in the Kent newspapers of his football and cricket matches from 1908-1911, starting long before his marriage, described him variously as 'SS Gibson', 'SS Rayne Gibson', 'V Gibson' and 'V Raine Gibson'.
   Also, neither he nor his first wife have yet been found in the 1911 census, although it seems clear that they should have been in Woolwich at the time. The census was taken just a few weeks before Plumstead FC, an amateur select, embarked on their tour to France and Spain. Gibson, along with team-mates Frank Allack and William Hodge, remained in Barcelona after the tour and all of them played for Espanyol. A year later, Gibson was persuaded to join Olympique Cettois in France, the club which later became FC Sète. There is a persistent story that Sète play in green and white hoops because Gibson was a Celtic supporter, but that can clearly be discounted.
   He was with the club for 12 years and took them to two French Cup finals (both lost), in 1923 and 1924, playing in the latter. Then he had five successful years coaching Marseille (cup victories in 1926 and 1927), a similar time with newly-formed Sochaux Montbéliard, and concluded in 1935 after a farewell year with Hispanola-Bastidienne in Bordeaux.
​   The man from Woolwich was a key figure in the history of FC Sète, Olympique de Marseille and Sochaux, among others, and deserves a place in the French football hall of fame now that the mystery of 'Victor' Gibson has been solved.
​

Recently I gave a talk to Dunblane Local History Society about the town's fantastic sporting heritage.
  Today, of course, Dunblane has a great sporting hall of fame. One immediately thinks of Andy and Jamie Murray, who have brought considerable prestige to the town, but there are many other sporting giants among us. To name just a few: Fiona Brown and Frankie Brown could be part of the Scotland women’s football squad at the World Cup this summer; Louise Martin (made a Dame in the recent honours list) is president of the Commonwealth Games Federation; Elaine Hopley rowed across the Atlantic in record time; world class athlete Andy Butchart; Callum Davidson, now coaching, played for Scotland at football, having also represented Scotland at golf and tennis as a boy; Grant McPherson was an ice hockey ace. I could easily add to that list.
  Yet there was a time when sport was even more of an integral part of life here.
   Dunblane offered an extraordinary range of sporting opportunities in the 19th century. Despite the town population being less than a third of what it is now, there were clubs for curling, bowling, football, golf, cricket, quoiting, cycling and angling. There were annual sports meetings each summer, shooting competitions for the Volunteers, and Dunblane Hydro boasted a tennis court and a croquet lawn.
   Click here to download a pdf of my talk about those sporting activities, as I attempt to explain why Dunblane had such a vibrant athletic culture, and reveal that some of our Victorian sporting heritage is still with us, even though you may not have noticed it.

A couple of years ago I wrote about William Sleator, an Englishman who is regarded as one of the fathers of French football. In 1891 he founded White Rovers FC, the first club in Paris, and imported the first set of goalposts to France.
   When I wrote that article, I appealed for further information and was therefore delighted to be contacted by his grandson, Christopher Robbie. We met up and exchanged information - he was unaware of many of Sleator's exploits - and he found his grandfather's priceless gold medal, pictured here. He also provided a snapshot of the man himself. 

The gold medal is the top honour of the French Football Federation, presented to those who have made a major contribution to football in the country. In general it is awarded to long-serving officials, who have already accumulated the silver and gilt category awards, so it was really something special for Sleator to be recognised in this way. The presentation was made 1949, half a century after he gave up playing the game, and showed that his pioneering role in French football had not been forgotten.

Christopher Robbie shared fond recollections of his grandfather, who died in 1955. The story was made all the more interesting as Robbie himself has a fascinating life story as a TV announcer and actor - there are plenty of clips online - and I am sure I saw him in action as a cyber leader on Dr Who in the 1970s (Revenge of the Cybermen). It just goes to show that sport history can lead in all sorts of interesting directions!