John Jack Alexander Gibson

British War Medal 1914-1918, Victory Medal 1914-1918

First Battalion

Canadian Mounted Rifles

John Alexander (called Jack) Gibson was born 04 February 1898 on the family farm at Rosebank Manitoba to James S. and Barbara (Hardy) Gibson. He was the 8th of 11 children, 4 sisters (Nellie, Ethel, Eva and Laura) and 6 brothers (William, Fredrick, James, George, Edward and Archibald). He was raised, went to school and later farmed in the Rosebank area.

Jack, like many young men of that time, lied about his age, using the birth date of his older sister Ethel when he enlisted with his brother Edward. Jack joined the 222nd Overseas Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) in Winnipeg, Manitoba 01 March 1916. He trained in Canada and shipped out on the S.S. Olympic and arrived in England on 20 November 1916. He was posted to the First Battalion, Canadian Mounted Rifles (CMR) on 21 April 1917. He landed in France from Branshott, England on 20 April 1917. The Canadian Mounted Rifles had been dismounted and converted to infantry in 1915 as the trench warfare was not conducive to mounted troops. Jack’s unit fought at the Second Battle of Passchendaele and the Second Battle of the Somme. Jack survived and was awarded a Good Conduct Strip on 25 March 1918 and was returned to England 13 February 1919. On 12 March he embarked for Canada on RMS Baltic. Jack was demobilized 25 March 1919 at Brandon, Manitoba and returned home to Rosebank. Once home Jack made it very clear he never wanted to talk about “trenches” again.

Jack married Mary Anderson Stuart on 23 November 1933. They lived on the Gibson farm north of Rosebank and raised their family there. They had 3 sons, Donald (married Elaine Woods, children Heather and Brenda), James (married Irene Harris, children Michael), and Kenneth (married Patricia Urquhart, children David and Katherine). They remained on the farm until they retired to Rosebank in the early 1960’s.

John (Jack) Alexander Gibson, age 72, died in the Morden Hospital on 04 August 1970, 20 miles from Rosebank.

He buried in the Miami, Manitoba Cemetery.