Gibson Harry Image 2 Clapton Orient 1914

Description

Hoxton, London born left half Harry Gibson began his football career with Hoxton Hall, from where he was signed by Second Division club Clapton Orient in 1913, making his Football League debut in a win over Leicester Fosse at Millfields Road in February 1914. Gibson stayed in the team through to the end of April, making 15 appearances during his debut season, and stayed in the team during the first three months of Orient’s 1914-15 campaign, but he lost his place after 14 matches in November 1914 after a run of 5 defeats in 7 matches, and played only once more (with a certain symmetry) in a home win over Leicester Fosse, the fixture against whom his League career had started, in April 1915, the only match in his 30 appearances for Clapton Orient not played in 1914.

At the end of the 1914-15 season the onset of the First World War forced the suspension of peacetime football in May 1915. Like several of his Clapton Orient team mates, Gibson fought with the 17th (Service) and 21st (Service) Battalions of The Middlesex Regiment (The Footballers’ Battalion) for the majority of the First World War and rose to the rank of sergeant. He was commissioned as a lieutenant in the 1st (Service) Battalion of The Royal Guernsey Light Infantry on 27th August 1918. Wounds received during the course of Gibson’s service caused his retirement from football in 1918 and after the War, it was reported that he had emigrated to the United States.