Scottish Sport History - devoted to our sporting heritage
  • Home
  • Books for sale
    • The men who made Scotland
    • World's First Foot-Ball Club
    • First Elevens
    • Arthur Kinnaird
    • History of Dunblane Football Club
  • Sports History News and Blog
  • Scottish sports bibilography
    • Scottish sport general
    • Football books
    • Football books (non league)
    • Rugby books
    • Cricket books
    • Athletics books
    • Shinty books
    • Curling books
    • Bowling books
    • Swimming books
    • Hockey books
    • Ice hockey books
    • Tennis books
    • Boxing books
  • Digitised books and articles
  • Scotland v England: the origins
    • England v Scotland 1870
    • Scotland v England 1872
    • England v Scotland 1873
    • Scotland v England 1874
  • Arthur Kinnaird: First Lord of Football
    • Kinnaird's FA Cup
    • Kinnaird blog archive
    • Kinnaird the canoeist
    • Kinnaird family history
    • Rossie Priory
  • Contact / About Me
  • Links

Revealed: the true identity of Victor Gibson

22/1/2019

1 Comment

 
Picture
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.
Picture
Gibson in defensive action for FC Sète at Stade Pershing in Paris, 1922 (Gallica)
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.
Picture
Uxbridge Gazette, 24 June 1938 (British Newspaper Archive)
More pieces started to fit. Arthur was brought up in Woolwich, the son of William and Fanny Gibson, and in 1910 he married Margaret Edith Gillard. The following year they had a daughter, called Raine - the middle name which Victor Gibson frequently used. Sadly, Raine died before her first birthday. As the newspaper report reveals, Gibson's wife stayed at home and he made a new life abroad.
   In 1939, the year after his divorce, Arthur Gibson married a French woman, Juliette Muller - it appears they were partners in France while he lived there as they had a daughter, Jeanne - and they continued to live in Ruislip until his death in 1958, aged 69. By then she had become a naturalised British citizen and she was, naturally, named in his will.
Picture
Probate notice for Arthur Henry Gibson in 1958
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.
​
Arthur Henry 'Victor' Gibson
Born 18 July 1888 in Woolwich, Kent.
Died 8 April 1958 at Harefield Hospital, Middlesex.
Picture
The football ground in Sète (Cette) where Gibson went in 1912 after a year with Espanyol
1 Comment
Nicolas
17/1/2023 01:44:43 pm

Merci pour cet article !!!

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    July 2024
    April 2024
    February 2024
    June 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012

    Categories

    All

    Author

    All blog posts, unless stated, are written by Andy Mitchell, who is researching Scottish sport on a regular basis.